Top O' the Briefing
Happy Thursday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. Yntwythyll loved a good slathering of oleo on his "Cranberry/Cheddar Surprise" scones.
America's three biggest cities — New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago — are all reeling from the effects of Democrats being in charge for too long. Chicago has suffered the longest, of course. The Windy City treats Republicans like pests that necessitate frequent treatments by exterminators.
Los Angeles — my second hometown — has had one Republican mayor in my lifetime, and he left office in 2001. New York City has had a little more Republican influence in the last 50 years, but that was all over at the beginning of this century.
There is a massive difference between being governed by 20th century and early 21st century Democrats and what the party has become in 2025. When Zohran Mamdani gets into office, he won't be reminding any older Manhattanites of Ed Koch or David Dinkins. In Los Angeles, Karen Bass has more in common with the late Fidel Castro than she does with Tom Bradley.
Democrats have been wreaking havoc in these cities at such a furious pace that one wonders how long before any of them are in full Escape From New York mode. New York has struggled mightily under Eric Adams' chaotic one term, which followed eight years of Bill de Blasio's commie flailing. Karen Bass stood around with a blank look on her face while her city burned.
In Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson is now the epitome of "be careful what you wish for." Chicago voters couldn't wait to give former Dem in charge Lori Lightfoot the bum's rush and replaced her with a brainless teachers' union puppet in Johnson. That's going super well. This is from my good friend and partner in thought crime Stephen Green:
Then there's Johnson's proposal to tax social media, which might not even be legal. YOLO, right?
And Another Thing: Commercial real estate reportedly lost $400 million in value since the previous assessment, putting a bigger property tax burden on homeowners. Johnson doesn't seem to have a plan for that, maybe because he never saw a tax he wanted to cut.
Meanwhile, the city's pension system is an underfunded wreck that taxes can't fix, because there won't be any sheep left to shear — er, people and businesses left to tax — if the city imposed taxes big enough.
Stephen's column is about the hot mess fighting among Chicago Dems that's creating a state of what he calls "paralysis" in the city. One thing the Democrats are very good at is finding different ways to screw up the cities they run.
Democrats love to talk about "sustainability" when they're in Climate Commie mode. The trajectories of the three cities that we're discussing today don't seem sustainable at all. None are quite in the doom spiral that San Francisco is, but that's only because they are all much larger and take longer to destroy. Los Angeles and New York also still benefit from a steady influx of young, idealistic entertainers who move to one of the two almost reflexively. Still, they're not bringing in enough money to make up for middle and upper middle class residents who are fleeing to places like Florida, Texas, and Arizona.
It's legit to ask if the Democrats can completely destroy the one or all of the three most populous cities in the United States of America. Ten years ago, I would have bet on an eventual course-correction in New York and Los Angeles. Chicago has been actively seeking "lost cause" status for a long time.
Now, I think any insane eventuality is on the table when it comes to the Trump-era Dems. I don't expect the post-Trump Democrats to get any better. I have a deep fondness for all three of the cities, each of which played an important role at different times in my stand-up career. My daughter was born and raised in Los Angeles. It's already heartbreaking to see what the Democrats have done there just in the time since I've left.
Democrats ruin everything they touch now. It's a stretch to hope for anything different.
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