Jun
29
2026

I Also Do Not Approve This Message

Saul's back, but he seems to have lost Mike's support:

Don't be misdirected!:

  • Many a tear has to fall. The NR editorialists point out a likely, if not inevitable, outcome: Zohran Mamdani's Rent Freeze Will Hurt Renters and the City.

    By a 7–1 majority, New York City’s euphemistically named Rent Guidelines Board approved freezing rents in both one- and (this has never occurred before) two-year leases on Gotham’s million or so rent-stabilized apartments. Mayor Zohran Mamdani can now boast that he has delivered on a key campaign promise. A member of the board picked to represent the interests of property owners — after all, that is who landlords are — resigned ahead of the vote. The board, she said, had “stopped being a fact-finding body” and had been rebuilt “to deliver a rent freeze.” Operating behind the hollowed-out façades of more legitimate structures is something the hard left likes to do.

    The result was a win for Mamdani, but it will be a loss for the city over which he presides. The disastrous consequences of rent control have been known for a very long time. In 1971, the Swedish economist Assar Lindbeck, then a member of his country’s center-left Social Democratic Party, described it as “the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city — except for bombing,” and he was far from the first to come to a similar conclusion. A rent freeze is rent control on steroids.

    Jonah Goldberg had an excellent response to "Writer, author, columnist, recovering lawyer, and yogi" Jill Filipovic, who says hey, why not:

  • "I really have mixed feelings about this." That's one of my favorite lines from Play it Again, Sam, spoken by Woody Allen. Funny, because it's about the best outcome Woody's character has come to expect.

    And it came to mind when reading the WSJ editorial: Only a Few Democrats Fight Back Against the Socialists. (WSJ gifted link)

    The election success of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is alarming many mainstream Democrats, but the striking news is how few elected officials have so far been willing to speak up against the DSA’s radical beliefs.

    […]

    The limited good news is that a few Democrats are fighting back, led by Long Island Rep. Tom Suozzi. He and nine other House Democrats have signed what they call “The Promise to America” that explicitly rejects the radical left’s agenda. Five House Democratic candidates have signed “the promise,” according to the list on their website.

    “We are capitalist, not socialist,” their letter to the public says. “We want safety, not lawlessness” and “we are proud, not ashamed of America.” It’s hard to believe these and other straightforward general statements of mainstream political principle need to be made as an alternative to the drift in their party. But that is where the Democrats are going as the radical left wins elections and gains more political power in cities and Congress.

    Rep. Suozzi has a Promise to America website full of, … well, promises. Example, under "Fiscal Discipline":

    We are responsible, not reckless.

    A generation has passed since our party balanced the budget. We will prioritize tackling the national debt honestly. We must pay our bills, and not leave our children in debt.

    Well, as John Lennon said: We'd all love to see the plan.

    There's extra (but limited) "good news" for Granite Staters one of the CongressCritters on the PTA's signatories page is NH-02's own Maggie Goodlander.

    Maggie is opposed in her primary by Paige Beauchemin, who is pretty much a standard wacky leftist. NH Journal's one-paragraph dismissal:

    […] Paige Beauchemin, who has vowed to support Medicare for All, abolish ICE, and end funding to Israel. She has declared herself the “Mini Bernie” in the race.

    That has not earned her a DSA endorsement. Yet.

  • Somebody tell the Chambers Brothers. Jonathan Turley notes that Time Has Come Today: “White Time”: Dutch Professor Argues that Time Itself is Racist.

    We have previously discussed how many professors seem to compete in finding new forms of racism in every facet of society and education. Astrophysics, math, runoffs, science, statistics, and meritocracy have all been denounced as racist. In this academic cottage industry, professors secure publications and speaking opportunities by identifying racism in the expressions, images, or entire fields. It was, therefore, only a matter of time before time itself was declared racist.

    Zakia Essanhaji, a professor of “organizational ethnography” at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, is the latest to make the case against “white time.” Her recent paper titled “Academic time theft: stealing time, producing racialized inclusion in Dutch academia” builds on prior work condemning time as racist.

    I'll try to find out how Chanda Prescod-Weinstein feels about this.

Recently on the book blog:


Last Modified 2026-06-29 2:41 PM EDT