June 18, 2025

LOL:

Posted at 7:09 pm by Glenn Reynolds 51

MICHAEL GOODWIN: Cuomo should thank Mamdani for making him look like the safe, stable choice for NYC mayor.

In his race for mayor, Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani has done the impossible: He’s made Andrew Cuomo look like a safe, stable choice.

Mamdani pulled off the remarkable feat by breaking a cardinal rule of politics: Don’t scare ­people.

But he has done exactly that by taking such radical positions in the Democrats’ mayoral primary that the portion of the electorate that hasn’t fallen for his vision of a socialist utopia realizes his policies would wreck New York.

His mantra of free this and free that, combined with a rent freeze on 1 million privately owned rent-regulated apartments, while promising that higher taxes on the rich would pay for everything, is music only to the ears of those who are ignorant about history and the laws of economics and human nature.

He’s also anti-cop to the core, which is the absolute last thing New York needs in City Hall.

Mamdani, just 33 years old, is vying to become the city’s youngest mayor.

He’s got clever videos and a lively presence on social media.

The base of his support comes from young New Yorkers, which proves the wisdom of ­George Bernard Shaw’s observation that “youth is wasted on the young.”

Then there are those ardent leftists behind him who refuse to grow up, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Born in Uganda, Mamdani would also be Gotham’s first Muslim mayor, and his refusal to recognize Israel as the legitimate homeland for Jews is another bridge too far.

New York has more Jews than any other city in the world, and the idea that its mayor would support BDS and other policies that aim to damage and even destroy Israel is unthinkable.

Bill de Blasio smiles.

Related: Mamdani says ‘globalize the intifada’ is expression of Palestinian rights.

Zohran Mamdani, a leading candidate in next Tuesday’s New York City mayoral primary, refused to condemn calls to “globalize the intifada” during a new podcast interview with The Bulwark released on Tuesday, arguing the phrase is an expression of Palestinian rights.

In an exchange about antisemitic rhetoric on the left, Mamdani was asked by podcast host Tim Miller to share his thoughts on the phrase, which has been invoked at anti-Israel demonstrations and criticized as an anti-Jewish call to violence.

“To me, ultimately, what I hear in so many is a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights,” said Mamdani, a far-left assemblyman from Queens who has long been an outspoken critic of Israel. “And I think what’s difficult also is that the very word has been used by the Holocaust Museum when translating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising into Arabic, because it’s a word that means struggle,” he said, apparently referring to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

A struggle, eh?

Related: Riots for thee, but not for me:

Shot:

Chaser: Zohran Mamdani hires security, citing ‘new level’ of threats in NYC mayor’s race.

CTRL-F “Defund” brings up zero results in the Gothamist’s article.

UPDATE:

Naturally, Mamdani switched into theater kid mode today in response to the outcry:

Posted at 6:45 pm by Ed Driscoll 177

CANCEL YOUR DREAM IRANIAN VACAY? Americans Devastated as State Dept. Ruins Summer Plans for Zero People.

I’m pretty sure the New York Times dropped their Iranian trips, in case anyone was thinking that was still an option. Flashback: What I Saw in Iran: A Free Beacon journey to the birthplace of Valerie Jarrett.

Posted at 6:30 pm by Ed Driscoll 27

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: Tucker Carlson Plays Gotcha with Sen. Cruz on Iran.

Anyway, the full interview is out today and it starts out a lot calmer than the snippet above suggests. Cruz praises Carlson at length for his positions on the border and the pandemic shutdowns. He suggests they agree on about 80% of their politics with the exception of some foreign police issues. Cruz argues that he holds a position in between interventionist and isolationist which he calls “non-interventionist hawk.”

But there is a moment about 30 minutes in where Cruz actually puts Carlson on the spot. Carlson suggests the aid given to Israel is very expensive and doesn’t make sense when so many Americans are struggling to buy groceries. Cruz responded, “You said the support for Israel was very expensive. How much support do we give Israel?”

Carlson dodged by saying, “Well, you tell me you vote for it.”

“It’s about $3 billion a year is the military assistance,” Cruz said. He added that the military assistance was the only aid given to Israel.

And not long after that the conversation takes a turn into a discussion of AIPAC. This is the point when all hell really breaks loose. Cruz admits to being supported by AIPAC and even describes how the organization works, holding fundraisers for candidates who support their goals. Carlson keeps asking if AIPAC is a foreign lobbyist being directed by Israel, which Cruz denies repeatedly.

And that leads to Cruz wondering why Carlson is only focused on AIPAC and lobbying by Israeli aligned groups when there are lobbyists for every nation on earth in Washington doing many of the same things. He implies that Carlson is fixated on Israel and “the Jews.” Carlson takes offense at this and says Cruz is making a “sleazy feline” insinuation that he is antisemitic.

The conversation eventually moves on with Cruz saying he wants to lower the temperature but it never really does go down much.

Which seems quite odd; Tucker used to be made of sterner stuff on the topic of Iran:

UPDATE:

Posted at 6:14 pm by Ed Driscoll 207

THE NEW SPACE RACE:

Impressive.

Posted at 4:52 pm by Stephen Green 46

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Walmart expands drone delivery service to 3 more states in race against Amazon.

In partnership with Google’s Wing, Walmart is expanding the service to launch at 100 stores in Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Orlando and Tampa, building on the existing operations in Northwest Arkansas and Texas. The retailer said that it’s the first to scale this service across five states – Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas – underscoring its aim to become a leader in tech-enabled retail.

Wing flies its drones beyond visual line of sight of up to a 6-mile aircraft range from the store. The products arrive to customers in under 30 minutes, according to Walmart.

“People all around the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex have made drone delivery part of their normal shopping habits over the past year,” the company said. “Now we’re excited to share this ultra-fast delivery experience with millions more people across many more U.S. cities.”

The only thing I wonder about what happens when drone delivery comes to Colorado is how Democrats will figure out how to tax it like they did with traditional deliveries.

They call it a “fee” to avoid TABOR restrictions on new taxes without voter approval. But, c’mon — it’s a tax on an activity, not a fee consumers pay to get a service or entry to a park.

Posted at 2:48 pm by Stephen Green 46

DISPATCHES FROM BARACK PROJECTION OBAMA: Obama: US ‘dangerously close’ to moving toward autocracy.

Former President Obama warned on Tuesday the current political climate isn’t “consistent” with American democracy.

“It is consistent with autocracies,” Obama told a crowd in Hartford, Conn., where he spoke about the growing threat posed under the Trump administration, according to Connecticut Public Radio.

“We’re not there yet completely, but I think that we are dangerously close to normalizing behavior like that,” he added.

The former president was in conversation with Heather Cox Richardson, a Boston College professor who writes a daily newsletter on Substack, “Letters from an American.”

“If you follow regularly what is said by those who are in charge of the federal government right now, there is a weak commitment to what we understood, and not just my generation, at least since World War II — our understanding of how a liberal democracy is supposed to work,” Obama told Richardson earlier in the conversation.

Related: Wielding A Pen And A Phone, Obama Goes It Alone.

—NPR, January 20th, 2014.

More: Liberals want Obama to be a king, not a president.

—CNN, June 8th, 2012.

Posted at 2:35 pm by Ed Driscoll 227

REMEMBERING KNOXVILLE’S OWN Sam & Andy’s Restaurant. The original, like pretty much every landmark on the Cumberland Avenue “strip” by the university, is long gone. There’s one out in Farragut that’s very good, but not quite as good as the original.

Some background on steamed deli sandwiches, a Knoxville tradition.

Related item here. And yes, J.C. Holdway is great, probably the best restaurant in town.

Posted at 2:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds 25

SHE’S CERTAINLY SEEMS TO BE OUT OF STEP WITH THE REST OF THE ADMINISTRATION: Tulsi Gabbard Joins Trump In Situation Room Amid Reports Of Rift With President.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard joined President Donald Trump in the Situation Room on Tuesday following a report that she was not invited to attend a June 8 Camp David retreat, where the president “convened senior national security officials to discuss the Middle East.”

According to a report from Fox News White House Correspondent Peter Doocy, Gabbard “had a scheduling conflict with National Guard orders, but was never invited [to Camp David] in the first place.” A senior intelligence official told The Daily Wire that the Camp David retreat was not originally planned to be an intelligence meeting and that CIA Director John Ratcliffe also wasn’t initially invited to attend, but he ended up going at the last minute. The senior intelligence official added that Tuesday’s national security meeting with Trump in the Situation Room was moved to the afternoon so that Gabbard could attend.

Last week, just after that Camp David meeting she wasn’t invited to: What the Hell Was That Tulsi Gabbard Video About?

Posted at 1:46 pm by Stephen Green 166