July 14, 2026

AMY CURTIS: With Extreme Poverty at All-Time Lows, Democratic Socialists Hope to Reverse the Trend.

Capitalism is the world’s great equalizer, and it has done more to raise people out of poverty than any other economic system on the planet. That, of course, is why the communists and their socialist cousins hate it. Under the ideal communist regime, there are only two classes: the wealthy, which consists of the politicians and those who are adequate bootlickers, and the poor.

Communism has to be that way. A robust middle class negates the need for centralized planning and massive government control over every aspect of our lives, from the cradle to the mass grave. That’s why the commies have to destroy anything and everything that builds up the middle class: culture, religion, and especially the nuclear family.

Socialism isn’t just about “the equal sharing of miseries.” It’s also about creating misery where there isn’t any — about the only thing it creates in abundance.

Posted at 12:58 pm by Stephen Green

VW CEO TAKING SOME VICIOUS LUMPS ON HIS FAHRVERGNOGGEN:

Oliver Blume took over the Volkswagen Group in 2022, after spending years in the company’s other divisions. For example, he started as a planner for paint and body shop operations at Audi when he was 28, and then, from 2015 until this promotion, he had been the CEO of VW subsidiary Porsche. Obviously, a capable guy who grew up within the unique VW system.

That is both a good and bad thing, considering the harrowing times the company faces right now.

Three weeks ago I told you all how an internal memo had surfaced detailing the company’s plans to do some drastic cutbacks – up to 100,000 layoffs, shuttering up to four plants, and going through their extensive business portfolio to see what they could offload for some upfront operating cash.

German labor unions went berserk – no surprise there.

Well, last Thursday, the turnaround plans were officially confirmed when Blume presented them to Volkswagen’s supervisory board in Wolfsburg for approval.

The plans were just as quickly shot out of the water – ‘torpedoed,’ as Bloomberg describes it – and in doing so offered a kind of horrifying look into what is strangling Germany’s former industry giant as it struggles to right its sinking ship.

Make sure you pay particular attention to that third paragraph concerning the make-up of the board that just told its CEO ‘nein.’ This would be a state of affairs inconceivable to an American.

In his 2007 book Liberal Fascism, Jonah Goldberg wrote, “Democratic, and most Republican, health-care plans don’t call for expropriating the private property of doctors and pharmaceutical companies or even for the cessation of employer-provided health care. Rather, they want to use corporations for government by proxy. There’s a reason liberal economists joke that General Motors is a health-care provider that makes cars as an industrial by-product.” In its dotage, “The People’s Car” manufacturer has descended into a similar state. Similarly, in 2024, Germany’s radical environmentalists began implementing a self-imposed update of America’s WWII-era Morgenthau Plan to deindustrialize das Vaterland. It looks like those plans are continuing apace.

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

SPOILER: NO ONE AT NETFLIX READ THE SOURCE MATERIAL. OR AT LEAST CARED:

Not sure anyone is looking forward to The Vampire Diariafication of Little House.

Posted at 12:27 pm by Stephen Green

AGREED:

Posted at 11:56 am by Stephen Green

UNEXPECTEDLY! Khanna reveals the billionaire tax is just the beginning.

Last week, Khanna confirmed that the “billionaire tax” is just the start and that they will go on to target the wealth of other citizens as an untapped resource of new revenue.

For years, some of us have warned that the billionaire tax was a ruse. Sponsors like Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Khanna were using billionaires as an easy political target, but they were unlikely to stop there.
…
That is precisely what Khanna finally admitted last week in a Substack post, arguing that “the tax should not stop at billionaires; it must reach centimillionaires. The tax has to reach all fortunes $50 million and up.”
…
If they can pack the Court and greenlight a billionaire tax, there would be no limit to then moving the threshold wealth level downward. Once that Rubicon is crossed, Democrats would suddenly be able to tax trillions in the property and possessions of citizens.

And then it’s all over. Nobody owns anything, except by someone else’s favor.

Vote as though your life, liberty, and property depend upon it — because they do.

Posted at 11:41 am by Stephen Green

THIS IS WHAT WE’RE SUPPOSED TO CELEBRATE?

Posted at 10:54 am by Stephen Green

IT WOULD TAKE A HEART OF STONE NOT TO LAUGH: NY sees dramatic exodus of millionaires — causing nearly $11B loss in tax revenue.

New York’s share of US millionaires dramatically declined in recent years, causing a nearly $11 billion loss in much-needed tax revenue in just one year, according to a bombshell new analysis.

The study released Monday by the Citizen Budget Commission showed the Empire State’s share of the nation’s millionaires dipped from 12.7% to 8.7% between 2010 and 2022 – the largest decline of any state.

“New York’s declining share of high-income taxpayers has meaningful consequences,” the analysis states.

“Had New York maintained its share of the nation’s millionaires over the past decade, personal income tax collections would have been substantially higher – roughly $10.7 billion more in tax year 2022.”

The study comes amid fears that Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s push to “tax the rich” will drive even more wealthy out of New York City – and provides an at-times disquieting snapshot of stagnation gripping the Empire State for years before the young socialist took office.

I had been assured that Other People’s Money was an unlimited resource.

Since the trend predates Mamdani, it makes you wonder how bad things will get once he really gets the city on the path to True Communism.

Posted at 10:39 am by Stephen Green

YES:

Posted at 10:23 am by Stephen Green

HEH: CNBC’s Woke ‘Worst States’ List Accidentally Makes Red America Look Great. “Other than crime rates, which most often occur in red-state cities, which are the bluest areas of said states, the criteria for ‘quality of life’ that CNBC uses are woke as a joke. Environmentalism, free healthcare, unions, and prioritizing the rainbow are what CNBC looked at.”

I miss living in a red state — and I didn’t even move.

Posted at 10:08 am by Stephen Green

IT BOGGLES THE MIND THAT THEY EVER COULD BORROW MONEY: Trump regulators move to curtail lending to undocumented immigrants.

In new guidance, regulators said that undocumented immigrants may present an “elevated credit risk” and warned banks to account for the risk that they may lose their job or be deported as they underwrite new loans.

Financial institutions, the guidance says, should take into account that a customer’s status as an unauthorized immigrant may pose a risk to their ability to repay credit cards, mortgages, auto loans or other loans.

The guidance also says that financial institutions “might consider” requiring customers to provide “evidence of continuing work authorization,” among other documentation, as part of their assessment of a customer’s ability to repay a loan.

How about, “You aren’t here legally, no money.”

Posted at 9:37 am by Stephen Green

THE NEEDS OF THE PARTY ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE, COMRADE:

I guess Whoopi’s distinction between “rape” and “rape-rape” is out of favor. Until it’s needed again, of course.

Posted at 9:21 am by Stephen Green

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Mamdani Bum-Rushes NYC Voters Into Their ‘FO’ Phase. “A commie infused with and fueled by ignorant youthful zeal is the worst kind of commie. Zohran Mamdani is the worst kind of commie. He’s not keeping it a secret, either. There are days that I swear he’s determined to prove that conservatives were right about him as quickly as he can.”

Posted at 9:06 am by Stephen Green