“Protests are meant to be the voices of the unheard. Yet these protests are the voices of those who never shut up.” — Unnamed Observer of No Kings, reported by Roger Kimball
At some point, you have to let people live with the consequences of their choices and actions. Gotham has (like many other large and small 'bergs in the US of A) been flirting with various forms of fascist/socialism for decades and it now seems like they're ready to go "full-commie".
Go ahead, touch the stove. It's a bold strategy, Cotton...
Perhaps we can all learn from the epic disaster that is likely to result before deciding to "Go National" with that experiment. Then again, it seems we've learned precious little from Navin Gruesome's reign of error in Commiefornia so, who knows.
Typically, progressives suffer from not seeing 2nd and 3rd order consequences of their policies, but this is pretty predictable as to what's gonna happen to NYC in coming years.
The good old slogan: The "right people haven't tried it yet." The good old reality: There are no "right people" who can turn jealousy into mass prosperity.
Ha, where are you Lugh? Equality is a joke, an excuse to the masses from people who do not even understand what it means.
The right to “life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. Not “equality”. The government’s job is to provide for opportunity. In this the Deep State has failed.
It sounds like your socialist side is thinking that the government is the solution to the widening of income distribution. That is so wrong as Mamdani is going to show when elected. Government is the cause of poverty as it gives preferential treatment to its favorites. It causes widening of the income gap with tax policies and welfare spending. Society looks to government to solve their problems and are inevitably disappointed. So they change “parties” and behold the fact that nothing really changes. That is because the problem IS the people themselves.
Today, the Lockean ideal that the people can govern themselves is under threat as the government has made it their goal to stupidify the people. Mamdani is just the next step in the removal of our Founders ideals.
Mamdani was the test case for the young version of Bernie, and their Democratic Socialist party. They just needed one to win a big election so they could foist a hundred more on us next year. The Democrat party is dead; long live the metastasized Socialist party. They will be on blue city ballots everywhere and cause the single largest demographic shift the country has ever seen. With illegals allowed to vote in blue cities, their reign of terror is just beginning. That’s why the push is on to increase the numbers of deportations. Time to post ICE at election centers. And ban mail in ballots!
The Ult-Left spends political and fiscal capital hiding the 2nd and 3rd order effects of their policies. A big part of the replacement strategy is the stupidification of the people. If people could see through the Dem bullshit, it would be the end of the party. So the need to destroy understanding of what America is and stands for is imperative. The Dem’s dogma? Promise them everything and give them nothing reflects the credo of the WEF, Own nothing and be happy. Why, because they are the same.
The next step for the NYC people? Have you watched Snake Pliskin in Escape from New York?
Indeed, Mamdami and his handlers are working overtime on 2nd and 3rd order consequences with his islamaphobia guilt trips and tear stained 9/11 confessionals. This obvious fake cover for a violent movement does seem to work, still. I guess we’ll have to see the depth of what NYC’rs will put up with prior to awakening.
I keep thinking that burning down that Pacific Palisades would have shaken many of those wealthy left donors into action, but so far, crickets. Newsome and Bass are screwing them over without any real pushback.
Shankar is referring to a decades-old practice known as “flag jacking,” in which some Americans pretend to be Canadian while traveling abroad to avoid anti-American sentiment. Flag-jacking Americans sew the maple leaf flag on their bags and lie about their nationality. It happened as far back as the 1960s and ‘70s during the unpopular Vietnam War, spiked again under George W. Bush’s Iraq War in the early 2000s, and has been revived under the current Trump administration.
Some Canadians, incensed at the trade war that just intensified with President Trump’s 10% tariff increase on Canada and his earlier threats to annex the country, have been calling out the Americans who make light of pretending to be Canadian abroad, posting online comments calling it cowardly, entitled, and a form of cultural appropriation.
Along with evading anti-American sentiment, flag-jacking Americans say they lie because they’re led to believe they’ll be treated better as Canadians abroad.
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Never once have I ever heard of a Canadian lying and saying that they are American while abroad. Conversely, Americans have been falsely claiming that they are Canadian abroad for more than half of a century.
Thank God that I live in a country where our citizens can be rightly proud (as opposed to rightly ashamed) of our track record.
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I will never forget the "typical American" giving a security guard big blasts of shit at the Louvre in Paris for the museum being closed on a Tuesday. "I come all the way from New Jersey to see this museum and it's closed?! This is unacceptable!"
The security guard just politely listened to the "typical American" losing her American nut while I better understood why Americans often sew a Maple Leaf unto their jackets and their backpacks.
It's just the timorous, pearl-clutching Lefties with Subarus and Nina Totenbags who feel the need to pretend to be Canadians. They're the same ones who gratuitously apologize to Native Americans and dumb down their vocabulary with black people.
Isn't it interesting that you don't even question the masquerade, citing linguistic and cultural differences between Americans and Canadians? You didn't, because you know and I know that there isn't a dime's worth of difference between the colonial descendants who call themselves Americans and the colonial descendants with the King on their money who live in America's hat.
If there isn't a difference then that flies in the face of all these Americans (maligned as they are) putting Maple Leafs on their jackets and backpacks for over a half of a century.
Why yes. The main difference would be the absence of an American flag. If it is so very bad (Ugly Americanism) I would bet ten U.S. dollars that most of the maple leaf backpackers are Canadians hoping to be perceived as Canadians. Plentyy want to kick the giant in the shins, even when the citizen behavior is perfectly lovely.
I was in Mexico. I could not BELIEVE the idiot Americans I saw on day, on a trip just over the border. As I recall, these Amercans believed themselves to be amongst savages or that they were somehow the superior beings. This was the disgusting behavior of "the master race." I don't remember exactly what the Americans did. But I remember that I was just absolutely appalled. The Mexicans selling the food or beverages did not do anything, though. The least a person can do is respect other persons. I think the only crime of the Mexicans in this case was BEING Mexican. (So, it follows: to these persons "Mexican" is a dirty word.)
WIthout Jews and other races, white people would not have gotten anywhere. Even on your own, you need the liberals to get fresh ideas from. Conservatives do not exist on their own. THey would be in caves
But where are the consequences, Occam? Progressives still have jobs, still living life high on the hog, still have plenty of money to go to protests, attend live drag queen shows and do the shit that they do. Been hearing croakings of doom for NYC for years now because of the lunatics they keep putting into office and the high taxes. Still, the island is a highly populated island and a much sought after tourist attraction.
These progressives are adept at avoiding consequences for their actions.
In my humble opinion, there appears to be a Marxist in the woodpile. In the 1970s, I don't recall such obvious unlawful actions by government actors and agencies that were at odds with other government actors and agencies - at the scale we see today.
One possibility that may explain some of this is a shortage of real progressives/liberals/leftists in the general population. I realize some brainwashed hapless creatures are on the streets, but nothing like the protest crowds of the '60s which had huge numbers of well educated, sane and righteous members in their midst. Lacking those organic numbers has generated a need for Dem politicians and their lackeys (ie, Antifa) to pick up the slack, and keep up the appearance of a divided America.
It strikes me more as a bad off-Broadway show rather than genuine U.S. politics.
NYC’s political demise has been caused, IMO, by the replacement of the character of Joe Average in the city. The Ult-Left has had oral success with their program of population replacement by the Deep State in NYC and many other cities as well.
NYC, Chicago, California cities, Portland, Minneapolis, Michigan cities, Seattle, New England cities, Washington, DC, Baltimore, Phoenix, Denver, are cities where replacement is changing the political landscape from Constitutionalism to gimme. It is totally co-ordinated and funded by Domestic Leftists supported by globalist billionaires. Their goal is obvious, destruction of America as “The King of the Mountain” and “home of the free and the Brave”.
Up to now, the Ult- Left has been very successful, mostly due to Obama/ Biden/ Clinton control of the Deep State. The RINOS, the Bushes, have been a big help. The fiasco of the Auto-pen administration has shown a light on what is going on and 2024 is the result. Will it continue or will the negative effects of having to tighten the national belt be too much for Joe Average, The cities are key, if the folk there are so gullible to the BS statements of people like Mamdani, we are toast.
Hopefully , Trump’s reforms will be able to start enhancing America’s economy and good feeling folks will keep MAGA in control. The idea that Biden policies could ever regain control is so repugnant.
If Trump doesn't run (and let's face it, he's getting on. The spirit may be willing, but the flesh may be weak) Megan Kelly has said, if Kamala runs, so will she. I, like her, though I think I'd prefer Vance.
Rubio is a Deep State traitor, the Mike Pompeo of DJT2.0. He's the one who keeps cockblocking any real negotiation on the Ukraine. In other words, a warmonger, cheerleading for the MIC and hoping to spill American blood on foreign soil. Little Marco should go straight to the front, along with Nancy Graham - two tough guys. Fuck them both.
If I were a homeowner near a POC neighborhood, I'd be putting my house up for sale now in anticipation of a Harris presidency in 2028 and the inevitable 46 percent property tax and 25 percent equity tax.
It’s more than just population replacement though. Baltimore has had very little population replacement since the 60s. Not much Hispanic immigration, at least compare to the other cities you listed. Yet it still votes heavily (like 85%) D consistently. Meanwhile, Denver has had a humongous influx of Hispanics the past thirty years but is about 70% D voting
Look also to the spread of drugs and crime. i do believe the Dem Mob are totally involved and profiting from the illicit trades. The character of the USA’s population has definitely changed.
Good point, and you'd think that people would learn from disasters -- but bad thinking and propaganda don't merely permit these policies to blunder into place, but also permit them to be unseen or misinterpreted by both the true believers and the plain old bewildered masses. Without better education, clearer thinking, and a more honest popular press, all this scramble-headed nonsense can continue all the way to collapse.
"Without better education, clearer thinking, and a more honest popular press, all this scramble-headed nonsense can continue all the way to collapse." ~ Truman Verdun
These horses have left the barn.
Anyone who thinks collapse it preventable, raise your hand.
Yeah, and the "popular press" will continue rake in the big bucks at the cost of that uneducated public. Excuse me while I check out some old "Hee Haw" reruns...balm for the soul. Roy Clark (no relation} is my hero.
But the problem, Doctor Boom, is it seems that these cities and states never face the consequences of their actions. Long have I heard that there is a mass exodus of taxpayers from cities like New York and states like California and that the jurisdictions are in shambles, yet, these cities and states still have millions upon millions of residents and businesses are still opening and functioning. Granted, I have seen a lot of California and it is a shit-hole run down barely functioning toilet dump, but, nearly 40 million people still live in and call it home. Never been to New York and have zero desire to ever go to New York but I hear there are still upwards of 9-10 million people living in that mess and still paying taxes.
Similar for most states with large cities (Chi-raq, Philly, etc.), many consequences get shielded in NYC because Albany pours money from the rest of the state into the city. Inertia keeps many of these places from devolving into Mogadishu '93 overnight, but it *is* happening (much of NYC looks like I remember it from the 70's, not a good look).
Billions of people live in numerous sh1tholes around the world - any who can leave, do. Those who can't hope their kids get out before it goes dystopian.
When the money runs out, and it eventually *will* run out, these cities will become literal hell on earth within days.
I guess in my mind consequences for this kind of behavior would be as you stated, Mogadishu, or, as I mentioned elsewhere, the City of Rome when it was sacked by Aleric and the Visigoths. These cities continue to run massive budget deficits while they continue to fund hotels for illegal immigrants and nothing ever happens. The employees still get paid, the trash still gets picked up, the sewer systems continue to move the shit.
While New York City's infrastructure relies on federal money, the claim that it is "propped up" is not fully accurate. The city, like all states and municipalities, both sends money to and receives money from the federal government, often paying more in taxes than it gets back. New York's funding situation is complex and subject to political factors.
Here is a breakdown of NYC's federal funding for infrastructure:
New York as a "donor state"
For decades, New York has been a "donor state," meaning that its residents and businesses send more in federal taxes to Washington, D.C., than the state receives back in federal spending.
While the balance of payments can shift, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic due to a large influx of relief aid, New York has historically been a significant net contributor to the federal budget.
Importance of federal grants
Despite being a donor state, New York City and related agencies still rely heavily on federal grant programs to fund large-scale infrastructure projects.
For example, the city's fiscal year 2026 operating budget includes over $7 billion in federal funds across various departments, while independent entities like the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) also receive federal aid.
Key projects receiving federal funding
Mass Transit: The MTA regularly receives federal grants for capital projects and repairs. For example, in 2024, the MTA was allocated significant federal funding from various sources, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Port Infrastructure: The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has been awarded hundreds of millions in federal grants to modernize and electrify its ports, including the Brooklyn Marine Terminal, under the Biden administration.
Gateway Program: The Gateway rail project, which is critical for the Northeast Corridor and includes the new Hudson River tunnels, was slated to receive federal funding.
The current political climate's impact
Recent federal funding has been subject to political maneuvering, particularly under the Trump administration.
In October 2025, the Trump administration froze about $18 billion in funding for two major New York infrastructure projects, the Gateway and Second Avenue subway projects. This move was announced during a government shutdown and was seen by some as targeting New York and its Democratic congressional leaders.
Another $11 billion in federal infrastructure projects for cities, including New York, was paused in October 2025.
Conclusion
New York City is not "propped up" by federal money in the sense that it relies entirely on federal funds to survive. However, it does depend on federal grants for major infrastructure projects, just like many other jurisdictions across the country. The city and state's position as net contributors to federal coffers further complicates the narrative of a bailout. The availability and allocation of these federal funds can be heavily influenced by the political climate, as demonstrated by the freezes and threats of cuts in 2025.
Money will never run out because they can print endless amounts of the stuff. The value of money? Just look at gold prices and that says it all. Gold hasn't changed. Gold today is the same as gold from millennia ago and it will be the same in 10,000 years. So why is an ounce of gold so damned expensive today? Because the value of the dollar has changed. I'm sure you understand this. I'm just preaching to the choir.
Doctor Boom - "At some point, you have to let people live with the consequences of their choices and actions." Absolutely agree. But unfortunately, once the prudent and more well-off FLEE from NYC, they will never come back because the damage and destruction that certainly will occur will take years and years to rebuild. Destruction (of anything) is easy, and often quick in its progression, and (unless truly malevolent) always marshaled by incompetent, delusional fools, whereas construction is always led by the competent, intentional, and intelligent, but it TAKES TIME. And my best guess is that once the greatest city in America falls further than it ever has before, this time, it's not likely it will recover, and, will be the bell weather of our entire country. You are much more an optimist than I am Doc.
Spent my childhood and entire working life around San Francisco. For many years, I thought the results of the gubmint's Commie ideas would finally come home to them. But no, the idiocy just kept getting worse. Finally businesses have closed up and downtowns are deserted except for homeless drug addicts living on the streets.
Mamdani’s ersatz grin throughout last week’s final debate was a study in composure. Petard after petard burst around him, yet the smile never faltered. As his rivals exposed the fissures and falsehoods in his policies, the grin remained fixed - less an expression than a mask. It was the smile of a man fully aware that his words are lies, and utterly indifferent to that fact, for he knows it no longer matters.
It called to mind the grim theater of the Supreme Soviet. There, too, Stalin’s sickening smile never wavered as he presided over “special sessions,” announcing new initiatives destined to be paid for in the blood of millions. The resemblance is not in scale, of course, but in spirit - that cold, unblinking confidence of power divorced from truth.
Maybe he believes (rightly) that many Americans are gullible and who think their Govt will always come to rescue them from their stupidity when romanticizing about everything free & easy...Somewhere over the rainbow...
Still, a jihadist mayor for the city of 9/11 just 24 years ago certainly isn't a sublime commentary for our species.
More smirk than smile. Plastered doesn't go far enough. It's as if it was chiseled in stone. The expression is more droid like than human. But the emotional minions love a nice smile, even when it fronts a snake.
"Zohran Mamdani wants more of that, affordability-by-decree, which means he will for sure get less affordable housing and more property that no one wants to take care of — which is what slums are."
The thing is, those who seek to impose their ruinous vision upon us do not have to live with, or in, the consequences of their actions. Indeed, they profit from it.
He has to convince the people of New York that living in slums is the best it gets. There is no way to inspire people to maintaining housing will ever happen. Chicago’s experiments with subsidized housing should be a warning bell for what happens to low income free housing. It was a total failure. Why? It starts with the fact that the people do not even know what housing maintenance means, and most are not motivated anyway. The gangs invade the concentration of hopelessness and thus they become the center for crime and drugs.
The answer to poverty? Get industry going back into the USA and screw East Asia. The core of American industry must move into the cities and train the people to work. To earn their way. Also, let the PTB exit the cities that are thumbing their nose at the middle class, and move to Texas or Florida or surprise, Phoenix.
Good one. IMHO, actions speak louder than words, and Bernie lives better than the majority of Americans with millions in his bank account, and three nice homes to choose where to live, so despite his words of redistributing the wealth, how much of his own wealth does he redistribute? He is certainly living the lifestyle of a capitalist.
Bernie lives like a king, yet he leads the "No Kings" movement. Apparently nobody in the Left cares enough to stop and say, "Hey, wait a minute! How is a socialist rich?" Then again, years ago a lefty colleague was ranting about "the rich" by ticking off a few wealthy Republicans. I asked her, "What about Buffett, Zuckerberg, Doomberg, Bezos...?" "Oh they're okay. They're OUR billionaires!" And that's probably the readon these people don't see their hypocrisy and stupidity.
Why can’t the left can’t see who the real kings are in America - the political class of career politicians (dems and GOP – “uniparty”) and Joe Biden is the poster child of everything that is wrong with America’s phony politics. A career politician, he enriched himself and his wicked family with riches no common American could afford, like two-multi-million-dollar mansions, luxury cars, a luxurious lifestyle: https://lizlasorte.substack.com/p/no-more-kings?r=76q58
Universal Health care would be a start. It would insure that even the crowd on this site would not lose their house and savings if hit by a medical crisis.
Oh and before you say it:
You must be a US Citizen to enroll in Medicare, Medicaid, or ACA plans. It has always been that way and will stay that way.
The fact that nobody in any kind of a position of influence doesn't look at a former barista making a congressional wage of $170K per year suddenly becoming a millionaire and question that speaks volumes to the filth and rot that is America's political system.
He’s a corrupted phony crook, just like virtually every member of Congress. Never really had a real job, in the real world. You can get that much wealth from a Congressional paycheck. Numbers don’t lie.
Think it will dawn on the long suffering Portlanders that all the chaos can be called off at a moment's notice whenever the politicians they elected deem it expedient? For those who suffered injury or property loss to the chaos, you can now make the case that the government itself is liable to you. They could have stopped it, had a duty to stop it, and did not, for their own self-serving and sociopathic reasons.
"For those who suffered injury or property loss to the chaos, you can now make the case that the government itself is liable to you. They could have stopped it, had a duty to stop it, and did not, for their own self-serving and sociopathic reasons."
"Think it will dawn on the long suffering Portlanders that all the chaos can be called off at a moment's notice whenever the politicians they elected deem it expedient?"
You don't think that's happened? See the problem is the "Mayor" was elected by Rank Choice voting so didn't win a majority and wasn't the favored candidate. He looks like a weakling and is. Six newly elected members of the new council are DSA. Since it was Rank Choice voting we ended up with Midwits or my preferred word, Retards.
"They could have stopped it, had a duty to stop it, and did not, for their own self-serving and sociopathic reasons."
How about: "can't stop it, haven't stopped it and will never stop it." That's what is currently happening here: Failure. Leadership vacuum.
The injured Portlanders and elsewhere will be demonized by the PTB to avoid having to have liability for the Leftist actions. Controlling the judiciary, which they have concentrated on, is crucial.
To the long suffering city folks, if you can, get out.
For one, I think the majority have a terminal case of TDS, and you mix in Green New Deal, men can have babies, AGW, etc., and essentially one ends up with planned obsolescence.
Yes, it is. My guess is that the Feds have been here for months observing things and know who all the players are. Why wouldn't they?
Why wouldn't they be worried about a weak state, largely rural, with no military bases run by an unpopular governor who was elected with shady campaign financing?
Oregon is 400 miles of U.S. border without any protection.
It's about the Cartel activity. It's about city and state leadership allowing it.
I just read up on it. What do you do when a larger slate does not satisfy a majority vote? Force people out on the bottom until someone gets a majority vote. What if when even with two, the vote is tied? Ha, some states use a coin toss.
The problem remains though, when a city’s population becomes dependent on the government, ie they are gimmied, they will always vote for the person that “promises” them freebies. That is the real problem everywhere, the Left promises them things for no effort, the Right says they want them to earn their way. Now fit that into our current situation in the country. Trump is elected by disillusioned Rust Belt voters who see through the Left’s bullshit.
NYC is not there yet, but give Mamdani two years, NYC will vote in Conservatives as they figure out what a joke he is.
New York will be fine, just as it has been under Bloomberg, DeBlazio, and the communist cop. That city weathers all of the insanity with flying colors. Still home to millions and still a major tourist attraction.
Has London fallen? My sisters just took a trip to London and spent 7 days viewing the sites and shopping in the expensive stores. They had a great time.
You're right. I'm not in London. I don't really care about London. I know my sisters enjoyed London, but, they stayed in the touristy parts and didn't venture out into the residential areas.
Hard questions. Are we not complicit in our downfall if all we do is analyze the problem endlessly? Is it enough to simply serve as documentarians of our demise? Does anyone really believe that if someone comes up with the optimum "magic words" in an internet posting, the light bulb will go off and the masses with suddenly get wise to our dilemma? Is there a better use of our brain power, such as devising tangible solutions? Can we talk (or read) our way out of the mess we're in? We do we get off the couch and reclaim our agency?
If we simply stay on the sidelines, have we actually earned any future redemption?
We stand on the shoulders of evolutionary survivors. They didn't just talk their way into the future.
Great questions. The problems are widespread. I recommend viewing the new documentary An Inconvenient Study which just won best in festival at the Malibu Film festival and can be streamed free at Aninconvenientstudy.com.
This is relevant in that our healthcare system is producing scores of disabled kids. In addition, our schools are turning out massive numbers of students below basic proficiency in math and reading. These issues alone can crash our society and economy in the future. Parents have some power in this area and should look for ways to use it.
"Is there a better use of our brain power, such as devising tangible solutions?" ~ TomA
Devising tangible solutions isn't possible until there is an honest objective assessment. It is my belief that the current state of affairs is a result of the current format for life being played-out, and our representatives gaming the system to perfection.
This isn't Trump's fault, and in order for him to be able to modify and/or fix the situation, he needs to gain the power to do so. In order to overcome the clusterfuck that representatives gaming the system to perfection have created, Trump will have to out game them to gain power.
And Minneapolis has their own version of an Islamo-communist running for mayor there too, just to put a cherry on top of the massive corruption and incompetence riddled throughout that sorry excuse for a state.
God please have mercy on this country and wake the people the f-up or we’re doomed.
Trumpian halts to uncontrolled immigration is a start. Finish the wall and enforce the law, the people rising in economic power will turn conservative to protect themselves from the government. The Dems know it.
Crazy that things so obviously true - like the idiocy of this guy being elected to the mayorship of the most powerful city in the world - are simply ignored by the propagandized masses.
Completely ludicrous that this slate of candidates to run this city is the choice NYC has.
The shit show that is NYC politics has gotten to a point even a NY native and cynic like me could never have imagined. Looks like this is going to be yet another case of FAFO in the extreme.
However, it should be well noted that Hamas Mandami did not get where he is on his own merits or promises. He was cheated into office via the odious Ranked Choice Voting and many millions from his Hamas/Demo-Marxist/Commie/Left Wing/Satanic Overlords who are behind the young mujahideen candidate.
Even so, it may not be enough - look at what happened with President Trump. I am a big supporter of Curtis Sliwa although James doesn't think too much of him. I lived in Manhattan during the 1970s and I know how horrible the crime situation can be. Curtis is the ONLY candidate who has the ability to do something about the criminals that are terrorizing the populace.
It's really too bad that the phony Republicans and conservatives have turned on him with their back stabbing support of Killer Cuomo. What a sick joke! Better Hamas Mandami than that bastard who single handedly just about destroyed our state with cashless bail BS and the Climate Protection Act (NY's Green New Deal ) which caused our electric costs to skyrocket.
In any event, we sure do live in interesting times. (kind of like the old Chinese curse)
Excellent explanation of how the Commie Mamdani will DESTROY NYC with NO KNOWLEDGE of running a corporation,(which NYC IS)! Welcome in a State of Communism! Businesses will close, the wealthy will eventually leave and the less fortunate will become more less fortunate and DEPEND on the government to support them! That’s the Communist Way.
"...state and local politicians who interfere with ICE operations could face arrest and prosecution for criminal conspiracy."
They've known this and ignored it.
What changed is their perspective of their financial dealings over the past couple of decades - whether self-identified or mentioned by the Feds through "channels". You can be certain that the FBI (et al) team digging into Antifa funding streams has a black book on them now.
They cannot afford to ignore the law lest they become the Latesha James of the Left Coast.
I get that sense that they have been given a memo, and looked at what is happening to some of their cohorts. The message should be clear though: you are not immune anymore and we are coming after you. Seems simple enough, y’know in a primal mammalian kinda way.
Won’t this be exciting! NYC is poised to elect a child mayor, whose administration is likely to resemble an adult play date 😂😂😂 Mami the Commie apparently believes that his election will give him the power 💪 to overcome well established laws of economics, as he makes everything free and freezes rents. Combine that with the release of thousands of criminals from Rikers and the possible outcomes are unlimited, though none are particularly appealing. If this experience doesn’t lead the majority to take the red pill 💊, NYC will soon resemble Baltimore, Chicago or (pick your favorite failed blue city). Fasten your seat belts - this ride will be bumpy 🐎
How about "Mami the Commie" just figures on completing the demolition that the Biden administration started. Which ever way it goes, it will be a no lose proposition for "Mami the Commie".
But you will have free buses! Problem is some idiots installed bike lanes on all the major thoroughfares so the humongous buses now frequently share a single lane with cars and delivery trucks, moving at about one mile per hour.
The insanity of the left is just as rampant outside of NYC. The frontrunner for the Dem candidate for the US Senate in Maine is a self-proclaimed communist who sports a deaths head Nazi tattoo on his chest and provides weapons training to Antifa.
Even crazier, he is campaigning as a working class fisherman, but neglects to reference that he went to prep school at Hotchkiss and his father was a corporate lawyer, etc. etc.
I'm not surprised that people who never knew NYC after Lindsay are for Mamdani. Young people gonna be hot and dumb for freebies. What surprises me is my demographic, which knew it all too well. Why don't they just sit on their couches and watch Taxi Driver and Serpico instead of trying to live those movies again?
Ms. Polly, I remember reading this in some news magazine after Lindsay left office. (do I remember correctly that he was a liberal R? ) It was reported that on becoming mayor, Lindsay said he could solve all of the problems of NYC if only he had double the budget. Apparently when he left office his budget was more than 2X what it was when he arrived but.....none of the issues of importance were close to being solved. As you are suggesting the ones after Lindsay were worse than Nero governing Rome.
Lindsay was a liberal R, correct, with some patrician Kennedy-esque glam. During his progressive years, crime and welfare use both went up something like 250%. It took the city decades — until Giuliani, really — to repair the damage he did and get back to something like normal.
It’s astonishing how many of you show up here with tragedy-of-the-commons panic, moral grandstanding, but zero interest in actual evidence or nuance.
Doctor Boom, you kick off with “At some point, you have to let people live with the consequences of their choices…” and then declare Gotham’s been flirting with “fascism/socialism” and is now going “full‑commie.” Bold. Lazy. That’s not analysis — it’s apocalypse porn dressed as insight. Where’s your breakdown? Where’s your evidence? Just waving “full communism” around doesn’t make it a point.
Occam, muttering about progressives “not seeing 2nd and 3rd order consequences” and predicting NYC’s doom… you offer zero specifics, no causal chain, just ominous murmurs. Fear-mongering without follow-through isn’t critique — it’s performance art.
JohnAZ, your “Ult‑Left…population replacement by the Deep State” line is straight from the conspiracy factory. Throwing “replacement” and “Deep State” around doesn’t equal analysis — it equals absurdity. Cities evolving demographically ≠ globalist plot. The leap from “I dislike urban policies” to “massive conspiracy” is hilarious if it weren’t sad.
Canker puss, you ask “But where are the consequences?” and hit the nail on the head. The hysteria machine churns nonstop, yet your promised NYC collapse never materializes. Hint: saying “it’s about to implode” for a decade doesn’t make it true.
Beth Nicolaides, pivoting to cultural shaming — Canadians, “maple-leaf backpackers,” “timorous lefties with Subarus and Nina Totenbags” — is peak deflection. You can’t argue substance, so you mock the people. Classic.
Here’s the truth: you’re not engaging with policy. You’re performing outrage. You fling historical analogies and fear like confetti, hoping for impact. Meanwhile, NYC hums along: businesses open, people live, tourism happens. Your stove never lights.
If you really cared about the city, you’d talk housing, transit, municipal finance — real-world things. But you don’t. You’re here for the spectacle. The panic. Keep seeing masks and “mujahideen candidates” if it makes you feel smart. Reality doesn’t care.
Ms. Pam---- while you accuse a lot of people of "performance art" ---- whatever that is---- and accuse people of not wanting to talk about specifics of policies or what will or what will not work, I fail to see you tell us anything about why you think that Mamdami policies will be so successful. Please feel free to tell us how rent control has worked great for people lucky enough to get rent controlled apartments as well as the investor who has his cold hard cash invested in a building that he/she cannot get a reasonable return on to keep up the bldg as well as fund additional investment to build new buildings. If rent control was such a winning policy and equitable to all parties, don't you think you would find investors and most US cities lining up in support.
Can you please show us an example of where socialist policies have been successful on a grand scale. Margaret Thatcher had the famous quip that socialism works fine until you run out of other peoples money. Seems this is quite true and unless I am mistaken NYC does chug along and seems to keep going in spite of all the dumb things they have done over the years but........I think you forget that the State of NY helps with funding and so does the US taxpayers. ( do you have a secret urge to have someone as sharp and forward thinking as Mayor Dinkins to return?) The only reason that residents of NYC do not leave in mass is that many of them have to stay until they can retire or are too stubborn to leave a sinking ship or......are part of the group feeding at the trough of gov't waste. Over the years NYC has lost millions of residents but most are replaced by illegal immigrants or others who think NYC is the place to make their fortune.
Please enlighten us with the great policies that the SOA plan to enact to make NYC a Nirvana on earth. Defund the police seems like a great idea as does no cash bail and what about the experiment that California did with making stealing legal as long as you only stole $950 or less. From what I understand the merchants there just loved the policy. Citizens started to realize that they were the ones funding this theft thru higher prices or........it created food deserts since most grocery stores operate on a very small margin and decided to shut down because they could not allow the theft to go on.
So.....Ms. Pam, please feel free to engage in intellectual debate on any of the wonderful socialist policies that you seem to agree with. I do not think you will find many of the people who comment frequently from being too shy to engage in real debate.
Ms. Pam---- generally in my discussions with libs/progs/socialists/communists or other left leaning people, they start their discussion with a statement that is not true and move on from there. You did not disappoint.
In no way shape or form did I frame my argument against rent control/housing policy as an argument for perfect economic returns for the person holding or investing the cash in rental properties. Typically most problems of cities and states and federal gov'ts are caused when dreamers who have never worked in private industry or people running for office try to change the rules of life that all humans should know from a very early age------ there is no free lunch. For example, people running for election think their policies only affect the exact thing that they are offering in order to effectively buy votes. For example, mostly Dem/Marxists but sometimes Rs as will for example offer higher welfare payments or sanctuary city status to try to cuddle up to a portion of the population that is always trying to get more out of other peoples pockets thru the force of gov't. Those policies then cause other issues like massive migration to the city or state offering them. When populations increase for the wrong reasons, it causes other things to happen------- millions of people come to NY because welfare is high, most people can get it without proving they are actually looking for a job and.......with crazy gov't regs on how and where people can either rent their property or build new rental properties, the increase in population overwhelms the supply of available housing. Generally the root of most problems can be traced back to stupid things the gov't does because the officials think they need to DO SOMETHING---- in order to justify some imagined inequity or injustice and.....they make the situation worse rather than better. In a true free market----which is non existent in NY) people are lured to NYC by higher welfare and gov't protection of illegal aliens and......these millions of people make it impossible for average people to find suitable housing. I am not for favoring either the person offering to rent their apartments/homes/rooms or the person trying to find a place to live. If apartments are over built and investors end up losing money-----not my fault----so the investors should have done their homework better and nobody is crying for them. Same with someone deciding to move to NYC and then are shocked by the high rents. Move somewhere else or do not move to NYC. Please do not compare the policies of the Euros since we are not that far down the socialist path, at least yet and they have their own set of issues and if you care for them so much, maybe you should move their rather than try to implement their failed policies here. Remember, there is no free lunch. I am not sure why you think the answer to failed gov't policies are more gov't policies. We have too many bureaucrats already, we do not need more trying to rob Peter and give it to Paul. Why do some people always think they have the right to take other peoples money and give it to someone else who has not worked for it ?
Mr. Neff, let’s start with your framing: that rent control or other progressive housing policies are either a universal win or a catastrophic failure for investors. This is a false binary. Policy does not exist to maximize the profits of landlords; it exists to secure the rights and lives of residents. The question is not whether an individual building yields a perfect return — it’s whether a city can provide affordable, stable housing at scale.
Mamdani’s policies are aimed at exactly that: keeping housing accessible for people who live and work in the city. New York has decades of experience showing that unregulated markets produce displacement, instability, and long-term inequity. Rent control, tenant protections, and inclusionary zoning do not claim perfection; they claim stability in a system otherwise dominated by speculation and profit extraction. That stability allows communities to survive, children to attend neighborhood schools, and working-class families to stay in the neighborhoods where they contribute.
You ask why “investors and most U.S. cities” don’t line up for these policies. Perhaps because profit is easy to measure and human life is harder. Cities that prioritize equitable housing — Berlin, Vienna, and Copenhagen among them — pair tenant protections with strategic investment, often through public housing development, subsidized mortgages, and regulatory frameworks that maintain affordability. These cities are not utopias, but they demonstrate that it is possible to provide housing security without abandoning investment entirely.
The real test is not whether every building makes a perfect return, but whether a city survives without hollowing out its population. On that measure, policies like Mamdani’s are not speculative fantasies; they are responses to decades of neglect, displacement, and inequality.
All of those things have been tried in Berlin and elsewhere here in Great Reset land, Agent Dickie. I actually live over here and experience first hand just how bad large German cities are.
Berlin, in specific, is more or less unlivable, unless you are ok with all of the things you listed here.
There is no such thing as true housing security in a Western country, particularly when those needing security don't work or don't have a legitimate claim to benefits on offer when not working.
however, NYC really wants a dictator "on their side"
I am just very glad I do not live near NY. If this guy really wins this, it will either be very entertaining, or it will be nothing. Utterances from the great commie Oblamer, stolen from commie Deval Patrick, "words just words"
I just can not imagine any earth shattering change going on. NY will just have a skinny little punk for a mayor.
You make a point. How can the people protest against “No Kings” and then vote in the ultimate King, a Commie dictator in Muslim clothing? Only in America?
Ms. Rosemary-----you missed a word. Between the words little and punk, please insert the word ignorant. He is so ignorant that he does not know what he does not know.
Kind of similar to me trying to run an nuclear power plant.
I was trained to run Nuclear Reactors by the Navy in 1976, and worked in Nuclear plants all my life. I think this site is a bunch of selfish, ignorant, mouth breathers.
Mr. Smith, maybe I am misreading your intent but.....it certainly appears that you just demeaned the majority of people who are on this site as ignorant and selfish-----not sure how mouth breathers is supposed to equate to an IQ------seems to indicate a sinus issue that has not be properly addressed but ???
Bully for you that you learned to run a small nuclear plant while in the Navy but if you really did mean to demean the majority of people on this site, you can take your comment and put it where the sun does not shine. It appears you have an overly inflated view of yourself. Just because I do not happen to know how to run a nuclear plant, it does not mean that I do not have a whole host of useful skills that have been quite profitable for me to use over the last 60 or so years.
I tried to engage with commenters on this site for the last couple days and came up with that conclusion. I've been called a many names but very few actual reasoned responses.
According to MAGA I am a Terrorist Commie just for being a Democrat. I am a nearly 70 Y.O. Navy submarine veteran, and a Grandfather to 5, married for 45 years. Even your comment I was responding to was kinda lame.
Ron, nuclear power plants have toilets for the operators. Those toilets must be cleaned regularly. Ask Mr. Smith. He'll tell you his secret technique. Also the proper way to empty a nuclear plant trashcan.
At some point, you have to let people live with the consequences of their choices and actions. Gotham has (like many other large and small 'bergs in the US of A) been flirting with various forms of fascist/socialism for decades and it now seems like they're ready to go "full-commie".
Go ahead, touch the stove. It's a bold strategy, Cotton...
Perhaps we can all learn from the epic disaster that is likely to result before deciding to "Go National" with that experiment. Then again, it seems we've learned precious little from Navin Gruesome's reign of error in Commiefornia so, who knows.
Well said.
Typically, progressives suffer from not seeing 2nd and 3rd order consequences of their policies, but this is pretty predictable as to what's gonna happen to NYC in coming years.
And nobody on the left seems to be in opposition.
Or.... 'this time will be different' emerges as a slogan. Same outcome.
The good old slogan: The "right people haven't tried it yet." The good old reality: There are no "right people" who can turn jealousy into mass prosperity.
Yup, the USSR was the PTB attempt to make everyone the same. It worked well.
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
Orwell,G; 'Animal Farm' 1945
Ha, where are you Lugh? Equality is a joke, an excuse to the masses from people who do not even understand what it means.
The right to “life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. Not “equality”. The government’s job is to provide for opportunity. In this the Deep State has failed.
Hey John. Please see:
https://www.kunstler.com/p/antifa-out-mamdani-ascendant/comment/170871436
It sounds like your socialist side is thinking that the government is the solution to the widening of income distribution. That is so wrong as Mamdani is going to show when elected. Government is the cause of poverty as it gives preferential treatment to its favorites. It causes widening of the income gap with tax policies and welfare spending. Society looks to government to solve their problems and are inevitably disappointed. So they change “parties” and behold the fact that nothing really changes. That is because the problem IS the people themselves.
Today, the Lockean ideal that the people can govern themselves is under threat as the government has made it their goal to stupidify the people. Mamdani is just the next step in the removal of our Founders ideals.
I love your last sentence - you nailed it.
Mamdani was the test case for the young version of Bernie, and their Democratic Socialist party. They just needed one to win a big election so they could foist a hundred more on us next year. The Democrat party is dead; long live the metastasized Socialist party. They will be on blue city ballots everywhere and cause the single largest demographic shift the country has ever seen. With illegals allowed to vote in blue cities, their reign of terror is just beginning. That’s why the push is on to increase the numbers of deportations. Time to post ICE at election centers. And ban mail in ballots!
The Ult-Left spends political and fiscal capital hiding the 2nd and 3rd order effects of their policies. A big part of the replacement strategy is the stupidification of the people. If people could see through the Dem bullshit, it would be the end of the party. So the need to destroy understanding of what America is and stands for is imperative. The Dem’s dogma? Promise them everything and give them nothing reflects the credo of the WEF, Own nothing and be happy. Why, because they are the same.
The next step for the NYC people? Have you watched Snake Pliskin in Escape from New York?
Indeed, Mamdami and his handlers are working overtime on 2nd and 3rd order consequences with his islamaphobia guilt trips and tear stained 9/11 confessionals. This obvious fake cover for a violent movement does seem to work, still. I guess we’ll have to see the depth of what NYC’rs will put up with prior to awakening.
I keep thinking that burning down that Pacific Palisades would have shaken many of those wealthy left donors into action, but so far, crickets. Newsome and Bass are screwing them over without any real pushback.
Check out these Americans completely not standing up for America, John:
Some say that Americans who pretend to be Canadian abroad aren’t fooling anyone. Here’s what’s giving them away
https://archive.ph/5RPp3#selection-2115.7-2115.118
Shankar is referring to a decades-old practice known as “flag jacking,” in which some Americans pretend to be Canadian while traveling abroad to avoid anti-American sentiment. Flag-jacking Americans sew the maple leaf flag on their bags and lie about their nationality. It happened as far back as the 1960s and ‘70s during the unpopular Vietnam War, spiked again under George W. Bush’s Iraq War in the early 2000s, and has been revived under the current Trump administration.
Some Canadians, incensed at the trade war that just intensified with President Trump’s 10% tariff increase on Canada and his earlier threats to annex the country, have been calling out the Americans who make light of pretending to be Canadian abroad, posting online comments calling it cowardly, entitled, and a form of cultural appropriation.
Along with evading anti-American sentiment, flag-jacking Americans say they lie because they’re led to believe they’ll be treated better as Canadians abroad.
-----
Never once have I ever heard of a Canadian lying and saying that they are American while abroad. Conversely, Americans have been falsely claiming that they are Canadian abroad for more than half of a century.
Thank God that I live in a country where our citizens can be rightly proud (as opposed to rightly ashamed) of our track record.
-----
I will never forget the "typical American" giving a security guard big blasts of shit at the Louvre in Paris for the museum being closed on a Tuesday. "I come all the way from New Jersey to see this museum and it's closed?! This is unacceptable!"
The security guard just politely listened to the "typical American" losing her American nut while I better understood why Americans often sew a Maple Leaf unto their jackets and their backpacks.
It's just the timorous, pearl-clutching Lefties with Subarus and Nina Totenbags who feel the need to pretend to be Canadians. They're the same ones who gratuitously apologize to Native Americans and dumb down their vocabulary with black people.
Isn't it interesting that you don't even question the masquerade, citing linguistic and cultural differences between Americans and Canadians? You didn't, because you know and I know that there isn't a dime's worth of difference between the colonial descendants who call themselves Americans and the colonial descendants with the King on their money who live in America's hat.
If there isn't a difference then that flies in the face of all these Americans (maligned as they are) putting Maple Leafs on their jackets and backpacks for over a half of a century.
"Does not compute!"
Why yes. The main difference would be the absence of an American flag. If it is so very bad (Ugly Americanism) I would bet ten U.S. dollars that most of the maple leaf backpackers are Canadians hoping to be perceived as Canadians. Plentyy want to kick the giant in the shins, even when the citizen behavior is perfectly lovely.
I was in Mexico. I could not BELIEVE the idiot Americans I saw on day, on a trip just over the border. As I recall, these Amercans believed themselves to be amongst savages or that they were somehow the superior beings. This was the disgusting behavior of "the master race." I don't remember exactly what the Americans did. But I remember that I was just absolutely appalled. The Mexicans selling the food or beverages did not do anything, though. The least a person can do is respect other persons. I think the only crime of the Mexicans in this case was BEING Mexican. (So, it follows: to these persons "Mexican" is a dirty word.)
Jacob, I suspect you "saw" just what you expected, or wanted, to see.
You don't like us. Why not make the aliyah? You think Mexicans respect us? That's why they break into our country, right?
WIthout Jews and other races, white people would not have gotten anywhere. Even on your own, you need the liberals to get fresh ideas from. Conservatives do not exist on their own. THey would be in caves
Maybe you'd be more likeable if you were not known the world over for exactly what Jacob describes. Eh?
-----
FYI - Here's another reason why people don't like you:
Here is a list of the countries bombed and/or invaded by the United States from the end of WW II to present:
Afghanistan 1998, 2001-2021/Bosnia 1994, 1995/Cambodia 1969-70/China 1945-46/Colombia 2025/Congo 1964/Cuba 1959-1961/El Salvador 1980s/Korea 1950-53/Guatemala 1954, 1960, 1967-69/Indonesia 1958/Germany(Nordstream) 2022/Grenada 1983/Iraq 1991-2000s, 2015-/Iran 1987, 2025/Korea 1950-53/Kuwait 1991/Laos 1964-73/Lebanon 1983, 1984/Libya 1986, 2011-/Nicaragua 1980s/Pakistan 2003, 2006-/Palestine 2010/Panama 1989/Peru 1965/Somalia 1993, 2007-08, 2010-/Sudan 1998/Syria 2014-/Trinidad & Tobago 2025/Venezuela 2025/Vietnam 1961-73/Yemen 2002, 2009-/Yugoslavia 1999
But where are the consequences, Occam? Progressives still have jobs, still living life high on the hog, still have plenty of money to go to protests, attend live drag queen shows and do the shit that they do. Been hearing croakings of doom for NYC for years now because of the lunatics they keep putting into office and the high taxes. Still, the island is a highly populated island and a much sought after tourist attraction.
These progressives are adept at avoiding consequences for their actions.
On the bright side, the Progressive NGO gravy spigot has been slowing, lately.
It's because the wheat is still admixed with the tares. Once the wheat is gathered into the barn, the tares will be burned.
Which are you? Are you sure? The angels are the reapers. I'm amazed that no art has ever depicted angels with scythes. Or am I wrong about that?
If their policies don't harm them then they must be working, right?
In my humble opinion, there appears to be a Marxist in the woodpile. In the 1970s, I don't recall such obvious unlawful actions by government actors and agencies that were at odds with other government actors and agencies - at the scale we see today.
One possibility that may explain some of this is a shortage of real progressives/liberals/leftists in the general population. I realize some brainwashed hapless creatures are on the streets, but nothing like the protest crowds of the '60s which had huge numbers of well educated, sane and righteous members in their midst. Lacking those organic numbers has generated a need for Dem politicians and their lackeys (ie, Antifa) to pick up the slack, and keep up the appearance of a divided America.
It strikes me more as a bad off-Broadway show rather than genuine U.S. politics.
Most of these people are not communists.
The only communists in the system are the LARPing idiots protesting outside ICE facilities because these people cannot compete in any other system.
The rest of them are dyed-in-the-wool capitalists - working to get more money and power for themselves.
Although I'll grant you Mandami and AOC might be full-on commies.
The hammer strikes the nail on the head, again.
They never learn.BTW, David Dorn was born today in 1942.
He would have been 83 today.
I wrote this to honor him
https://torrancestephensphd.substack.com/p/doctorates-in-postmodern-criticism
NYC’s political demise has been caused, IMO, by the replacement of the character of Joe Average in the city. The Ult-Left has had oral success with their program of population replacement by the Deep State in NYC and many other cities as well.
NYC, Chicago, California cities, Portland, Minneapolis, Michigan cities, Seattle, New England cities, Washington, DC, Baltimore, Phoenix, Denver, are cities where replacement is changing the political landscape from Constitutionalism to gimme. It is totally co-ordinated and funded by Domestic Leftists supported by globalist billionaires. Their goal is obvious, destruction of America as “The King of the Mountain” and “home of the free and the Brave”.
Up to now, the Ult- Left has been very successful, mostly due to Obama/ Biden/ Clinton control of the Deep State. The RINOS, the Bushes, have been a big help. The fiasco of the Auto-pen administration has shown a light on what is going on and 2024 is the result. Will it continue or will the negative effects of having to tighten the national belt be too much for Joe Average, The cities are key, if the folk there are so gullible to the BS statements of people like Mamdani, we are toast.
Just wait 'til Kamala runs for Pres. in '28 and the Dems try to do it the "right way" this time!
Hopefully , Trump’s reforms will be able to start enhancing America’s economy and good feeling folks will keep MAGA in control. The idea that Biden policies could ever regain control is so repugnant.
Hopefully Kammy will run in 28 and hand the election to Trump (again).
If Trump doesn't run (and let's face it, he's getting on. The spirit may be willing, but the flesh may be weak) Megan Kelly has said, if Kamala runs, so will she. I, like her, though I think I'd prefer Vance.
Rubio & Trump Jr need to be on that list.
Rubio is a Deep State traitor, the Mike Pompeo of DJT2.0. He's the one who keeps cockblocking any real negotiation on the Ukraine. In other words, a warmonger, cheerleading for the MIC and hoping to spill American blood on foreign soil. Little Marco should go straight to the front, along with Nancy Graham - two tough guys. Fuck them both.
If I were a homeowner near a POC neighborhood, I'd be putting my house up for sale now in anticipation of a Harris presidency in 2028 and the inevitable 46 percent property tax and 25 percent equity tax.
It’s more than just population replacement though. Baltimore has had very little population replacement since the 60s. Not much Hispanic immigration, at least compare to the other cities you listed. Yet it still votes heavily (like 85%) D consistently. Meanwhile, Denver has had a humongous influx of Hispanics the past thirty years but is about 70% D voting
Look also to the spread of drugs and crime. i do believe the Dem Mob are totally involved and profiting from the illicit trades. The character of the USA’s population has definitely changed.
"Ult Left"? Try CTRL + Left.
"CTRL + Left"? Try CTRL + ALT + DEL!
Good point, and you'd think that people would learn from disasters -- but bad thinking and propaganda don't merely permit these policies to blunder into place, but also permit them to be unseen or misinterpreted by both the true believers and the plain old bewildered masses. Without better education, clearer thinking, and a more honest popular press, all this scramble-headed nonsense can continue all the way to collapse.
"Without better education, clearer thinking, and a more honest popular press, all this scramble-headed nonsense can continue all the way to collapse." ~ Truman Verdun
These horses have left the barn.
Anyone who thinks collapse it preventable, raise your hand.
Reading with hands in pockets....
Well said!
Yeah, and the "popular press" will continue rake in the big bucks at the cost of that uneducated public. Excuse me while I check out some old "Hee Haw" reruns...balm for the soul. Roy Clark (no relation} is my hero.
Whata bout Miss Hathaway?
Whatabout her? You're too obscure for me, Jarek.
What about Buck Owens? Or Junior? Or Minnie Pearl?
Buck, Minnie and Junior were great, but Roy was a true guitarist...Google him playing "Malaguena".
Will do.
But the problem, Doctor Boom, is it seems that these cities and states never face the consequences of their actions. Long have I heard that there is a mass exodus of taxpayers from cities like New York and states like California and that the jurisdictions are in shambles, yet, these cities and states still have millions upon millions of residents and businesses are still opening and functioning. Granted, I have seen a lot of California and it is a shit-hole run down barely functioning toilet dump, but, nearly 40 million people still live in and call it home. Never been to New York and have zero desire to ever go to New York but I hear there are still upwards of 9-10 million people living in that mess and still paying taxes.
So where are the consequences?
Similar for most states with large cities (Chi-raq, Philly, etc.), many consequences get shielded in NYC because Albany pours money from the rest of the state into the city. Inertia keeps many of these places from devolving into Mogadishu '93 overnight, but it *is* happening (much of NYC looks like I remember it from the 70's, not a good look).
Billions of people live in numerous sh1tholes around the world - any who can leave, do. Those who can't hope their kids get out before it goes dystopian.
When the money runs out, and it eventually *will* run out, these cities will become literal hell on earth within days.
I guess in my mind consequences for this kind of behavior would be as you stated, Mogadishu, or, as I mentioned elsewhere, the City of Rome when it was sacked by Aleric and the Visigoths. These cities continue to run massive budget deficits while they continue to fund hotels for illegal immigrants and nothing ever happens. The employees still get paid, the trash still gets picked up, the sewer systems continue to move the shit.
are these cities propped up with federal money to keep their infrastructure going?
AI Overview
While New York City's infrastructure relies on federal money, the claim that it is "propped up" is not fully accurate. The city, like all states and municipalities, both sends money to and receives money from the federal government, often paying more in taxes than it gets back. New York's funding situation is complex and subject to political factors.
Here is a breakdown of NYC's federal funding for infrastructure:
New York as a "donor state"
For decades, New York has been a "donor state," meaning that its residents and businesses send more in federal taxes to Washington, D.C., than the state receives back in federal spending.
While the balance of payments can shift, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic due to a large influx of relief aid, New York has historically been a significant net contributor to the federal budget.
Importance of federal grants
Despite being a donor state, New York City and related agencies still rely heavily on federal grant programs to fund large-scale infrastructure projects.
For example, the city's fiscal year 2026 operating budget includes over $7 billion in federal funds across various departments, while independent entities like the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) also receive federal aid.
Key projects receiving federal funding
Mass Transit: The MTA regularly receives federal grants for capital projects and repairs. For example, in 2024, the MTA was allocated significant federal funding from various sources, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Port Infrastructure: The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has been awarded hundreds of millions in federal grants to modernize and electrify its ports, including the Brooklyn Marine Terminal, under the Biden administration.
Gateway Program: The Gateway rail project, which is critical for the Northeast Corridor and includes the new Hudson River tunnels, was slated to receive federal funding.
The current political climate's impact
Recent federal funding has been subject to political maneuvering, particularly under the Trump administration.
In October 2025, the Trump administration froze about $18 billion in funding for two major New York infrastructure projects, the Gateway and Second Avenue subway projects. This move was announced during a government shutdown and was seen by some as targeting New York and its Democratic congressional leaders.
Another $11 billion in federal infrastructure projects for cities, including New York, was paused in October 2025.
Conclusion
New York City is not "propped up" by federal money in the sense that it relies entirely on federal funds to survive. However, it does depend on federal grants for major infrastructure projects, just like many other jurisdictions across the country. The city and state's position as net contributors to federal coffers further complicates the narrative of a bailout. The availability and allocation of these federal funds can be heavily influenced by the political climate, as demonstrated by the freezes and threats of cuts in 2025.
"It's complicated"!
The sh*t is hitting the wall here in Chicago, cankerpuss.
Every blue city is a chicago in progress
Money won't run out if the feds keep backfilling - not under Trump so much, but future administrations would love to keep NYC looking nice.
Money will never run out because they can print endless amounts of the stuff. The value of money? Just look at gold prices and that says it all. Gold hasn't changed. Gold today is the same as gold from millennia ago and it will be the same in 10,000 years. So why is an ounce of gold so damned expensive today? Because the value of the dollar has changed. I'm sure you understand this. I'm just preaching to the choir.
Doctor Boom - "At some point, you have to let people live with the consequences of their choices and actions." Absolutely agree. But unfortunately, once the prudent and more well-off FLEE from NYC, they will never come back because the damage and destruction that certainly will occur will take years and years to rebuild. Destruction (of anything) is easy, and often quick in its progression, and (unless truly malevolent) always marshaled by incompetent, delusional fools, whereas construction is always led by the competent, intentional, and intelligent, but it TAKES TIME. And my best guess is that once the greatest city in America falls further than it ever has before, this time, it's not likely it will recover, and, will be the bell weather of our entire country. You are much more an optimist than I am Doc.
Spent my childhood and entire working life around San Francisco. For many years, I thought the results of the gubmint's Commie ideas would finally come home to them. But no, the idiocy just kept getting worse. Finally businesses have closed up and downtowns are deserted except for homeless drug addicts living on the streets.
Mamdani’s ersatz grin throughout last week’s final debate was a study in composure. Petard after petard burst around him, yet the smile never faltered. As his rivals exposed the fissures and falsehoods in his policies, the grin remained fixed - less an expression than a mask. It was the smile of a man fully aware that his words are lies, and utterly indifferent to that fact, for he knows it no longer matters.
It called to mind the grim theater of the Supreme Soviet. There, too, Stalin’s sickening smile never wavered as he presided over “special sessions,” announcing new initiatives destined to be paid for in the blood of millions. The resemblance is not in scale, of course, but in spirit - that cold, unblinking confidence of power divorced from truth.
Gavin Newsom has the same lying smile
Maybe he believes (rightly) that many Americans are gullible and who think their Govt will always come to rescue them from their stupidity when romanticizing about everything free & easy...Somewhere over the rainbow...
Still, a jihadist mayor for the city of 9/11 just 24 years ago certainly isn't a sublime commentary for our species.
More smirk than smile. Plastered doesn't go far enough. It's as if it was chiseled in stone. The expression is more droid like than human. But the emotional minions love a nice smile, even when it fronts a snake.
"Zohran Mamdani wants more of that, affordability-by-decree, which means he will for sure get less affordable housing and more property that no one wants to take care of — which is what slums are."
The thing is, those who seek to impose their ruinous vision upon us do not have to live with, or in, the consequences of their actions. Indeed, they profit from it.
He has to convince the people of New York that living in slums is the best it gets. There is no way to inspire people to maintaining housing will ever happen. Chicago’s experiments with subsidized housing should be a warning bell for what happens to low income free housing. It was a total failure. Why? It starts with the fact that the people do not even know what housing maintenance means, and most are not motivated anyway. The gangs invade the concentration of hopelessness and thus they become the center for crime and drugs.
The answer to poverty? Get industry going back into the USA and screw East Asia. The core of American industry must move into the cities and train the people to work. To earn their way. Also, let the PTB exit the cities that are thumbing their nose at the middle class, and move to Texas or Florida or surprise, Phoenix.
Laughter is the best medicine when a “democratic” socialist walks into a bar: https://lizlasorte.substack.com/p/a-democratic-socialist-walks-into?r=76q58
"You can make a capitalist poor and they’ll still believe in Capitalism.
But if you make a socialist rich, you have a new capitalist."
Is Bernie a capitalist?
Good one. IMHO, actions speak louder than words, and Bernie lives better than the majority of Americans with millions in his bank account, and three nice homes to choose where to live, so despite his words of redistributing the wealth, how much of his own wealth does he redistribute? He is certainly living the lifestyle of a capitalist.
There was wealth redistribution, resulting in a good portion 'redistributed' in his direction.
Good point!
Bernie lives like a king, yet he leads the "No Kings" movement. Apparently nobody in the Left cares enough to stop and say, "Hey, wait a minute! How is a socialist rich?" Then again, years ago a lefty colleague was ranting about "the rich" by ticking off a few wealthy Republicans. I asked her, "What about Buffett, Zuckerberg, Doomberg, Bezos...?" "Oh they're okay. They're OUR billionaires!" And that's probably the readon these people don't see their hypocrisy and stupidity.
Exactly!
Why can’t the left can’t see who the real kings are in America - the political class of career politicians (dems and GOP – “uniparty”) and Joe Biden is the poster child of everything that is wrong with America’s phony politics. A career politician, he enriched himself and his wicked family with riches no common American could afford, like two-multi-million-dollar mansions, luxury cars, a luxurious lifestyle: https://lizlasorte.substack.com/p/no-more-kings?r=76q58
They are too busy believing their lot is life is substantiated by the stealing of capital from the rich? They are Democrats.
The big problem for the USA is they have no clue what to do with the re-distributed capital.
Yes, the rich are too rich by far. We need a non-Marxist socialism to deal with this, not just more of your burn and loot Capitalism.
Universal Health care would be a start. It would insure that even the crowd on this site would not lose their house and savings if hit by a medical crisis.
Oh and before you say it:
You must be a US Citizen to enroll in Medicare, Medicaid, or ACA plans. It has always been that way and will stay that way.
After AOC had become a millionaire, she went to a ball wearing her "Eat the rich" gown.
The fact that nobody in any kind of a position of influence doesn't look at a former barista making a congressional wage of $170K per year suddenly becoming a millionaire and question that speaks volumes to the filth and rot that is America's political system.
He’s a corrupted phony crook, just like virtually every member of Congress. Never really had a real job, in the real world. You can get that much wealth from a Congressional paycheck. Numbers don’t lie.
Word.
Up.
Nope, Bernie is an insane Leftist that wants the presidency in a country whose heart is still capitalistic. He is a power monger, period.
Well, that explains it. I was thinking he was just a fraud.
He has been blocked by his own party for twenty years from national levels. Now we have Bernie, Mamdani and AOC garnering national predominance.
???? Oh yeah, the communist media!!!!!!
Perhaps that will take the heat off those Pam Bondi has penciled in her calendar?
People are in love with chains, especially the "mind forged manacles" (Blake).
“The F in socialism stands for freedom.” and the one on about numbers and discrimination. 😂🤣
Think it will dawn on the long suffering Portlanders that all the chaos can be called off at a moment's notice whenever the politicians they elected deem it expedient? For those who suffered injury or property loss to the chaos, you can now make the case that the government itself is liable to you. They could have stopped it, had a duty to stop it, and did not, for their own self-serving and sociopathic reasons.
"For those who suffered injury or property loss to the chaos, you can now make the case that the government itself is liable to you. They could have stopped it, had a duty to stop it, and did not, for their own self-serving and sociopathic reasons."
Wow you are describing Jan 6th 2021!
"Think it will dawn on the long suffering Portlanders that all the chaos can be called off at a moment's notice whenever the politicians they elected deem it expedient?"
You don't think that's happened? See the problem is the "Mayor" was elected by Rank Choice voting so didn't win a majority and wasn't the favored candidate. He looks like a weakling and is. Six newly elected members of the new council are DSA. Since it was Rank Choice voting we ended up with Midwits or my preferred word, Retards.
"They could have stopped it, had a duty to stop it, and did not, for their own self-serving and sociopathic reasons."
How about: "can't stop it, haven't stopped it and will never stop it." That's what is currently happening here: Failure. Leadership vacuum.
But those that suffered didn't have a Black Lives Matter Sign and/or a Ukraine flag in their front yard.
The injured Portlanders and elsewhere will be demonized by the PTB to avoid having to have liability for the Leftist actions. Controlling the judiciary, which they have concentrated on, is crucial.
To the long suffering city folks, if you can, get out.
I'm putting my chips on Trump employing his DC guard model throughout the nation; otherwise one will need to get out of the country.
"How about: "can't stop it, haven't stopped it and will never stop it." That's what is currently happening here: Failure. Leadership vacuum." ~ Deana
The cities are a magnet for gimmes, their votes elect people who insist on giving them freebies to hold power. Simple as that.
My thoughts are that Portland is different.
For one, I think the majority have a terminal case of TDS, and you mix in Green New Deal, men can have babies, AGW, etc., and essentially one ends up with planned obsolescence.
Yes, it is. My guess is that the Feds have been here for months observing things and know who all the players are. Why wouldn't they?
Why wouldn't they be worried about a weak state, largely rural, with no military bases run by an unpopular governor who was elected with shady campaign financing?
Oregon is 400 miles of U.S. border without any protection.
It's about the Cartel activity. It's about city and state leadership allowing it.
John, understand with Rank Choice Voting you can't elect your way out of it. Do you understand how it works?
I just read up on it. What do you do when a larger slate does not satisfy a majority vote? Force people out on the bottom until someone gets a majority vote. What if when even with two, the vote is tied? Ha, some states use a coin toss.
The problem remains though, when a city’s population becomes dependent on the government, ie they are gimmied, they will always vote for the person that “promises” them freebies. That is the real problem everywhere, the Left promises them things for no effort, the Right says they want them to earn their way. Now fit that into our current situation in the country. Trump is elected by disillusioned Rust Belt voters who see through the Left’s bullshit.
NYC is not there yet, but give Mamdani two years, NYC will vote in Conservatives as they figure out what a joke he is.
May God have mercy on the good and decent residents of NYC.
They are a minority.
New York will be fine, just as it has been under Bloomberg, DeBlazio, and the communist cop. That city weathers all of the insanity with flying colors. Still home to millions and still a major tourist attraction.
I'm sure they said that about London, too.
Has London fallen? My sisters just took a trip to London and spent 7 days viewing the sites and shopping in the expensive stores. They had a great time.
You should read more. Clearly you have no idea what's going on in England.
You're right. I'm not in London. I don't really care about London. I know my sisters enjoyed London, but, they stayed in the touristy parts and didn't venture out into the residential areas.
So, educate me. What's going on in London?
Hard questions. Are we not complicit in our downfall if all we do is analyze the problem endlessly? Is it enough to simply serve as documentarians of our demise? Does anyone really believe that if someone comes up with the optimum "magic words" in an internet posting, the light bulb will go off and the masses with suddenly get wise to our dilemma? Is there a better use of our brain power, such as devising tangible solutions? Can we talk (or read) our way out of the mess we're in? We do we get off the couch and reclaim our agency?
If we simply stay on the sidelines, have we actually earned any future redemption?
We stand on the shoulders of evolutionary survivors. They didn't just talk their way into the future.
People in Illinois are reclaiming their agency by leaving, same with businesses. Soft secession is growing.
The Civil War grows
Great questions. The problems are widespread. I recommend viewing the new documentary An Inconvenient Study which just won best in festival at the Malibu Film festival and can be streamed free at Aninconvenientstudy.com.
This is relevant in that our healthcare system is producing scores of disabled kids. In addition, our schools are turning out massive numbers of students below basic proficiency in math and reading. These issues alone can crash our society and economy in the future. Parents have some power in this area and should look for ways to use it.
"Is there a better use of our brain power, such as devising tangible solutions?" ~ TomA
Devising tangible solutions isn't possible until there is an honest objective assessment. It is my belief that the current state of affairs is a result of the current format for life being played-out, and our representatives gaming the system to perfection.
This isn't Trump's fault, and in order for him to be able to modify and/or fix the situation, he needs to gain the power to do so. In order to overcome the clusterfuck that representatives gaming the system to perfection have created, Trump will have to out game them to gain power.
If you want to do something to restore an honest objective assessment, so that there are consequences for a dishonest MSM, then how about offering your suggestions here: https://www.kunstler.com/p/the-matrix-abides/comment/169448055
And Minneapolis has their own version of an Islamo-communist running for mayor there too, just to put a cherry on top of the massive corruption and incompetence riddled throughout that sorry excuse for a state.
God please have mercy on this country and wake the people the f-up or we’re doomed.
Trumpian halts to uncontrolled immigration is a start. Finish the wall and enforce the law, the people rising in economic power will turn conservative to protect themselves from the government. The Dems know it.
Crazy that things so obviously true - like the idiocy of this guy being elected to the mayorship of the most powerful city in the world - are simply ignored by the propagandized masses.
Completely ludicrous that this slate of candidates to run this city is the choice NYC has.
Clown world, indeed.
The shit show that is NYC politics has gotten to a point even a NY native and cynic like me could never have imagined. Looks like this is going to be yet another case of FAFO in the extreme.
However, it should be well noted that Hamas Mandami did not get where he is on his own merits or promises. He was cheated into office via the odious Ranked Choice Voting and many millions from his Hamas/Demo-Marxist/Commie/Left Wing/Satanic Overlords who are behind the young mujahideen candidate.
Even so, it may not be enough - look at what happened with President Trump. I am a big supporter of Curtis Sliwa although James doesn't think too much of him. I lived in Manhattan during the 1970s and I know how horrible the crime situation can be. Curtis is the ONLY candidate who has the ability to do something about the criminals that are terrorizing the populace.
It's really too bad that the phony Republicans and conservatives have turned on him with their back stabbing support of Killer Cuomo. What a sick joke! Better Hamas Mandami than that bastard who single handedly just about destroyed our state with cashless bail BS and the Climate Protection Act (NY's Green New Deal ) which caused our electric costs to skyrocket.
In any event, we sure do live in interesting times. (kind of like the old Chinese curse)
Ranked Choice Voting should be outlawed.
It's put the nail in the coffin of Portland - it's officially now the Portland City Clowncil.
So yeah, FAFO NYC.
Sliwa and the guardian angels believed that community vigilanteism was the answer to crime control.
These people want freebies for nothing, they want no part of responsibility.
Sliwa has 27 cats. A man who can be trusted in other words.
I trust him more than Mamdani at the moment.
😻😻😻
Excellent explanation of how the Commie Mamdani will DESTROY NYC with NO KNOWLEDGE of running a corporation,(which NYC IS)! Welcome in a State of Communism! Businesses will close, the wealthy will eventually leave and the less fortunate will become more less fortunate and DEPEND on the government to support them! That’s the Communist Way.
Sun Tzu several thousand years ago said it best: " An evil man will allow his country to burn to the ground, if it means HE can rule over the ashes."
And it is not just in NYC. It is in cities across the USA.
"...state and local politicians who interfere with ICE operations could face arrest and prosecution for criminal conspiracy."
They've known this and ignored it.
What changed is their perspective of their financial dealings over the past couple of decades - whether self-identified or mentioned by the Feds through "channels". You can be certain that the FBI (et al) team digging into Antifa funding streams has a black book on them now.
They cannot afford to ignore the law lest they become the Latesha James of the Left Coast.
I get that sense that they have been given a memo, and looked at what is happening to some of their cohorts. The message should be clear though: you are not immune anymore and we are coming after you. Seems simple enough, y’know in a primal mammalian kinda way.
Won’t this be exciting! NYC is poised to elect a child mayor, whose administration is likely to resemble an adult play date 😂😂😂 Mami the Commie apparently believes that his election will give him the power 💪 to overcome well established laws of economics, as he makes everything free and freezes rents. Combine that with the release of thousands of criminals from Rikers and the possible outcomes are unlimited, though none are particularly appealing. If this experience doesn’t lead the majority to take the red pill 💊, NYC will soon resemble Baltimore, Chicago or (pick your favorite failed blue city). Fasten your seat belts - this ride will be bumpy 🐎
How about "Mami the Commie" just figures on completing the demolition that the Biden administration started. Which ever way it goes, it will be a no lose proposition for "Mami the Commie".
It won't take long before the people are saying (Mamdamit!!!)
Ok that’s it for today: you won the internet with that one!!
Maybe, if they are stupid enough to believe his bullshit, they are stupid enough to put up with his lies.
Mami is either really stupid or the most evil of grifters. Is he a model for the AntiChrist?
Or maybe a soldier for the AntiChrist who Pope Leo says is already amongst us today.
He's not stupid.
But you will have free buses! Problem is some idiots installed bike lanes on all the major thoroughfares so the humongous buses now frequently share a single lane with cars and delivery trucks, moving at about one mile per hour.
The insanity of the left is just as rampant outside of NYC. The frontrunner for the Dem candidate for the US Senate in Maine is a self-proclaimed communist who sports a deaths head Nazi tattoo on his chest and provides weapons training to Antifa.
Even crazier, he is campaigning as a working class fisherman, but neglects to reference that he went to prep school at Hotchkiss and his father was a corporate lawyer, etc. etc.
Maine has been a lost cause for years….
I'm not surprised that people who never knew NYC after Lindsay are for Mamdani. Young people gonna be hot and dumb for freebies. What surprises me is my demographic, which knew it all too well. Why don't they just sit on their couches and watch Taxi Driver and Serpico instead of trying to live those movies again?
Ms. Polly, I remember reading this in some news magazine after Lindsay left office. (do I remember correctly that he was a liberal R? ) It was reported that on becoming mayor, Lindsay said he could solve all of the problems of NYC if only he had double the budget. Apparently when he left office his budget was more than 2X what it was when he arrived but.....none of the issues of importance were close to being solved. As you are suggesting the ones after Lindsay were worse than Nero governing Rome.
Lindsay was a liberal R, correct, with some patrician Kennedy-esque glam. During his progressive years, crime and welfare use both went up something like 250%. It took the city decades — until Giuliani, really — to repair the damage he did and get back to something like normal.
Fun fact. While in office Lindsay dated Florence Henderson (Mrs. Brady) and gave her crabs. No, not the seafood type
Yep.
It’s astonishing how many of you show up here with tragedy-of-the-commons panic, moral grandstanding, but zero interest in actual evidence or nuance.
Doctor Boom, you kick off with “At some point, you have to let people live with the consequences of their choices…” and then declare Gotham’s been flirting with “fascism/socialism” and is now going “full‑commie.” Bold. Lazy. That’s not analysis — it’s apocalypse porn dressed as insight. Where’s your breakdown? Where’s your evidence? Just waving “full communism” around doesn’t make it a point.
Occam, muttering about progressives “not seeing 2nd and 3rd order consequences” and predicting NYC’s doom… you offer zero specifics, no causal chain, just ominous murmurs. Fear-mongering without follow-through isn’t critique — it’s performance art.
JohnAZ, your “Ult‑Left…population replacement by the Deep State” line is straight from the conspiracy factory. Throwing “replacement” and “Deep State” around doesn’t equal analysis — it equals absurdity. Cities evolving demographically ≠ globalist plot. The leap from “I dislike urban policies” to “massive conspiracy” is hilarious if it weren’t sad.
Canker puss, you ask “But where are the consequences?” and hit the nail on the head. The hysteria machine churns nonstop, yet your promised NYC collapse never materializes. Hint: saying “it’s about to implode” for a decade doesn’t make it true.
Beth Nicolaides, pivoting to cultural shaming — Canadians, “maple-leaf backpackers,” “timorous lefties with Subarus and Nina Totenbags” — is peak deflection. You can’t argue substance, so you mock the people. Classic.
Here’s the truth: you’re not engaging with policy. You’re performing outrage. You fling historical analogies and fear like confetti, hoping for impact. Meanwhile, NYC hums along: businesses open, people live, tourism happens. Your stove never lights.
If you really cared about the city, you’d talk housing, transit, municipal finance — real-world things. But you don’t. You’re here for the spectacle. The panic. Keep seeing masks and “mujahideen candidates” if it makes you feel smart. Reality doesn’t care.
Agent Dickie has been dispatched to sow discord and try to flip the comments section.
Yawn.
Ms. Pam---- while you accuse a lot of people of "performance art" ---- whatever that is---- and accuse people of not wanting to talk about specifics of policies or what will or what will not work, I fail to see you tell us anything about why you think that Mamdami policies will be so successful. Please feel free to tell us how rent control has worked great for people lucky enough to get rent controlled apartments as well as the investor who has his cold hard cash invested in a building that he/she cannot get a reasonable return on to keep up the bldg as well as fund additional investment to build new buildings. If rent control was such a winning policy and equitable to all parties, don't you think you would find investors and most US cities lining up in support.
Can you please show us an example of where socialist policies have been successful on a grand scale. Margaret Thatcher had the famous quip that socialism works fine until you run out of other peoples money. Seems this is quite true and unless I am mistaken NYC does chug along and seems to keep going in spite of all the dumb things they have done over the years but........I think you forget that the State of NY helps with funding and so does the US taxpayers. ( do you have a secret urge to have someone as sharp and forward thinking as Mayor Dinkins to return?) The only reason that residents of NYC do not leave in mass is that many of them have to stay until they can retire or are too stubborn to leave a sinking ship or......are part of the group feeding at the trough of gov't waste. Over the years NYC has lost millions of residents but most are replaced by illegal immigrants or others who think NYC is the place to make their fortune.
Please enlighten us with the great policies that the SOA plan to enact to make NYC a Nirvana on earth. Defund the police seems like a great idea as does no cash bail and what about the experiment that California did with making stealing legal as long as you only stole $950 or less. From what I understand the merchants there just loved the policy. Citizens started to realize that they were the ones funding this theft thru higher prices or........it created food deserts since most grocery stores operate on a very small margin and decided to shut down because they could not allow the theft to go on.
So.....Ms. Pam, please feel free to engage in intellectual debate on any of the wonderful socialist policies that you seem to agree with. I do not think you will find many of the people who comment frequently from being too shy to engage in real debate.
Cheers
Ron
You must be new here. Every now and then, a carbon copy of Agent Dickie shows up, only to be flushed away like a lingering piece of fecal matter.
Ms. Pam---- generally in my discussions with libs/progs/socialists/communists or other left leaning people, they start their discussion with a statement that is not true and move on from there. You did not disappoint.
In no way shape or form did I frame my argument against rent control/housing policy as an argument for perfect economic returns for the person holding or investing the cash in rental properties. Typically most problems of cities and states and federal gov'ts are caused when dreamers who have never worked in private industry or people running for office try to change the rules of life that all humans should know from a very early age------ there is no free lunch. For example, people running for election think their policies only affect the exact thing that they are offering in order to effectively buy votes. For example, mostly Dem/Marxists but sometimes Rs as will for example offer higher welfare payments or sanctuary city status to try to cuddle up to a portion of the population that is always trying to get more out of other peoples pockets thru the force of gov't. Those policies then cause other issues like massive migration to the city or state offering them. When populations increase for the wrong reasons, it causes other things to happen------- millions of people come to NY because welfare is high, most people can get it without proving they are actually looking for a job and.......with crazy gov't regs on how and where people can either rent their property or build new rental properties, the increase in population overwhelms the supply of available housing. Generally the root of most problems can be traced back to stupid things the gov't does because the officials think they need to DO SOMETHING---- in order to justify some imagined inequity or injustice and.....they make the situation worse rather than better. In a true free market----which is non existent in NY) people are lured to NYC by higher welfare and gov't protection of illegal aliens and......these millions of people make it impossible for average people to find suitable housing. I am not for favoring either the person offering to rent their apartments/homes/rooms or the person trying to find a place to live. If apartments are over built and investors end up losing money-----not my fault----so the investors should have done their homework better and nobody is crying for them. Same with someone deciding to move to NYC and then are shocked by the high rents. Move somewhere else or do not move to NYC. Please do not compare the policies of the Euros since we are not that far down the socialist path, at least yet and they have their own set of issues and if you care for them so much, maybe you should move their rather than try to implement their failed policies here. Remember, there is no free lunch. I am not sure why you think the answer to failed gov't policies are more gov't policies. We have too many bureaucrats already, we do not need more trying to rob Peter and give it to Paul. Why do some people always think they have the right to take other peoples money and give it to someone else who has not worked for it ?
Mr. Neff, let’s start with your framing: that rent control or other progressive housing policies are either a universal win or a catastrophic failure for investors. This is a false binary. Policy does not exist to maximize the profits of landlords; it exists to secure the rights and lives of residents. The question is not whether an individual building yields a perfect return — it’s whether a city can provide affordable, stable housing at scale.
Mamdani’s policies are aimed at exactly that: keeping housing accessible for people who live and work in the city. New York has decades of experience showing that unregulated markets produce displacement, instability, and long-term inequity. Rent control, tenant protections, and inclusionary zoning do not claim perfection; they claim stability in a system otherwise dominated by speculation and profit extraction. That stability allows communities to survive, children to attend neighborhood schools, and working-class families to stay in the neighborhoods where they contribute.
You ask why “investors and most U.S. cities” don’t line up for these policies. Perhaps because profit is easy to measure and human life is harder. Cities that prioritize equitable housing — Berlin, Vienna, and Copenhagen among them — pair tenant protections with strategic investment, often through public housing development, subsidized mortgages, and regulatory frameworks that maintain affordability. These cities are not utopias, but they demonstrate that it is possible to provide housing security without abandoning investment entirely.
The real test is not whether every building makes a perfect return, but whether a city survives without hollowing out its population. On that measure, policies like Mamdani’s are not speculative fantasies; they are responses to decades of neglect, displacement, and inequality.
All of those things have been tried in Berlin and elsewhere here in Great Reset land, Agent Dickie. I actually live over here and experience first hand just how bad large German cities are.
Berlin, in specific, is more or less unlivable, unless you are ok with all of the things you listed here.
There is no such thing as true housing security in a Western country, particularly when those needing security don't work or don't have a legitimate claim to benefits on offer when not working.
"no kings!!!"
however, NYC really wants a dictator "on their side"
I am just very glad I do not live near NY. If this guy really wins this, it will either be very entertaining, or it will be nothing. Utterances from the great commie Oblamer, stolen from commie Deval Patrick, "words just words"
I just can not imagine any earth shattering change going on. NY will just have a skinny little punk for a mayor.
You make a point. How can the people protest against “No Kings” and then vote in the ultimate King, a Commie dictator in Muslim clothing? Only in America?
Most of us don't live in NYC.
Do you want a King?
Ms. Rosemary-----you missed a word. Between the words little and punk, please insert the word ignorant. He is so ignorant that he does not know what he does not know.
Kind of similar to me trying to run an nuclear power plant.
agree. He is really a dopey idiot
I was trained to run Nuclear Reactors by the Navy in 1976, and worked in Nuclear plants all my life. I think this site is a bunch of selfish, ignorant, mouth breathers.
I think this site has at least one selfish, ignorant, mouth breather.
FIFY
Mr. Smith, maybe I am misreading your intent but.....it certainly appears that you just demeaned the majority of people who are on this site as ignorant and selfish-----not sure how mouth breathers is supposed to equate to an IQ------seems to indicate a sinus issue that has not be properly addressed but ???
Bully for you that you learned to run a small nuclear plant while in the Navy but if you really did mean to demean the majority of people on this site, you can take your comment and put it where the sun does not shine. It appears you have an overly inflated view of yourself. Just because I do not happen to know how to run a nuclear plant, it does not mean that I do not have a whole host of useful skills that have been quite profitable for me to use over the last 60 or so years.
I tried to engage with commenters on this site for the last couple days and came up with that conclusion. I've been called a many names but very few actual reasoned responses.
According to MAGA I am a Terrorist Commie just for being a Democrat. I am a nearly 70 Y.O. Navy submarine veteran, and a Grandfather to 5, married for 45 years. Even your comment I was responding to was kinda lame.
Bye Bye
Ron, nuclear power plants have toilets for the operators. Those toilets must be cleaned regularly. Ask Mr. Smith. He'll tell you his secret technique. Also the proper way to empty a nuclear plant trashcan.