May 13, 2026

REALITY BITES: Mamdani Drops NYC Property Tax Hike Plan.

The democratic socialist mayor is expected to formally abandon his proposal to raise property taxes nearly 10% after months of backlash from homeowners, business leaders, and even fellow Democrats worried the move would further damage New York’s struggling economy.

Mamdani’s executive budget instead will rely heavily on billions of dollars in additional state aid negotiated with Gov. Kathy Hochul to help close the city’s budget deficits, multiple outlets reported.

Hochul and Mamdani announced Tuesday that Albany approved another $4 billion in support for New York City, bringing total new state assistance to nearly $8 billion over two years.

So the state will bail out the city.

Posted at 10:40 am by Stephen Green

NEW DEFINITION OF FASCISM JUST DROPPED:

Old and busted: “Making the trains run on time.”

The new hotness? Making the fire engines run on time and having enough water in the reservoir to put out the Pacific Palisades fire.

As George Orwell wrote in 1944, “It will be seen that, as used, the word ‘Fascism’ is almost entirely meaningless. In conversation, of course, it is used even more wildly than in print. I have heard it applied to farmers, shopkeepers, Social Credit, corporal punishment, fox-hunting, bull-fighting, the 1922 Committee, the 1941 Committee, Kipling, Gandhi, Chiang Kai-Shek, homosexuality, Priestley’s broadcasts, Youth Hostels, astrology, women, dogs and I do not know what else.”

Flashback: Fascism, Again. An explainer, of sorts.

UPDATE:

Posted at 10:35 am by Ed Driscoll

TELFORD’S REPLY ASSUMES A FACT NOT IN EVIDENCE:

If Favreau has ever been anything more than a partisan bile machine, I’ve yet to see it.

Posted at 9:53 am by Stephen Green

DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE DISTRICTS: ‘Crazy ass Uncle Tom’: Democrat State Rep. Juandalynn Givan says Clarence Thomas ‘sold us back into the hands of the master.’

State Rep. Juandalynn Givan (D-Birmingham) called U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) Associate Justice Clarence Thomas an “Uncle Tom” and the “one who sold us out in Africa” after a recent redistricting ruling on Monday.
…
Givan criticized Thomas, a black and respected conservative jurist, for ruling to “take away two damn congressional seats” from Democrats.

“This mf’er, this man, this Uncle Tom, this Uncle Tim…and I’m so pissed and I said this today…this black man right here, I don’t know what kind of black he is. I don’t know what damn plantation this man came from. I don’t know what slave ship he was on. I don’t know what part of the slave ship he was on,” Givan said on Facebook on Monday.

What a shame she’s a state representative and not subject to the upcoming congressional redistricting.

Posted at 9:38 am by Stephen Green

REMINDER: THIS IS THE REPORT THAT NICK KRISTOF’S LIES ABOUT ISRAELI RAPE DOGS WAS SUPPOSED TO SMOTHER.

Posted at 9:22 am by Stephen Green

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Future Republicans Need a Trump Style Guide for Dealing With the Press. “His less-than-presidential moments quickly became my favorite parts of the whole show. It was a revelation to see a Republican politician refuse to roll over and let the media run roughshod over him.I had been writing about MSM bias for almost two decades at that point and was sick of watching all of the kowtowing going on in the upper echelons of the GOP.”

Posted at 9:07 am by Stephen Green

THE NEW SPACE RACE:

I’m expecting an earth-shattering kaboom, and hopefully only the intended one.

Posted at 8:51 am by Stephen Green

BOOK REVIEW: THE UNIVERSITY UNFETTERED. George Leef is skeptical: “Whether the University achieved excellence is debatable, but it certainly spent a lot of money.”

Posted at 8:44 am by Robert Shibley

LONG OVERDUE, BUT POP PLENTY OF CORN ANYWAY: Rand Paul announces Senate hearing with Fauci will have testimony from ‘COVID coverup’ whistleblower.

The statute of limitations expired on Monday and former President Joe Biden pardoned Fauci, which shields the former chief medical advisor to Biden from criminal referral for allegedly lying to Congress about gain-of-function research. Paul said he isn’t deterred by the expiration or Biden’s pardon.

“Today is the deadline to charge Fauci, or he walks away from one of the biggest cover-ups in American history without ever facing a jury. I have spent years building this case. I referred him to the DOJ. I forced the hearings. I grilled him under oath. The American people were lied to about the origins of COVID, gain-of-function research, and the Wuhan cover-up,” Paul said in a post on X on Monday.

In another post, he said that even if the DOJ doesn’t pursue charges, he wasn’t going to be “letting up.”

Stay tuned…

Posted at 8:36 am by Stephen Green

IT’S THE DEMOGRAPHY, STUPID:

(Classical reference in headline.)

Posted at 8:22 am by Ed Driscoll

WELL, WHEN YOU PUT IT THAT WAY…:

Posted at 8:20 am by Stephen Green

PERSPECTIVE:

Posted at 7:49 am by Stephen Green

LAYERS AND LAYERS OF FACT CHECKERS AND EDITORS: ‘It’s Hamas Propaganda:’ New York Times Writer Nicholas Kristof’s ‘Sexual Violence’ Column Caps a Career of Corrections, Retractions and Apologies Going Back 25 Years.

Related:

 

 

So is the young person who wrote that last referenced tweet completely clueless about the history of the Times and the Pulitzer, or is he/she/them dropping a particularly sly member-berry? Pulitzer Committee Won’t Revoke Times Pulitzer.

Posted at 7:45 am by Ed Driscoll

THEY ALWAYS SHOW YOU WHO THEY’RE AFRAID OF:

Posted at 7:45 am by Glenn Reynolds