There’s been a lot of pushbacks lately on a number of levels, which is encouraging in a society that often seems to have gone off the rails.
Seven landlords are suing New York City over Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s rent freeze on a million units. They are worried that, as costs rise, they won’t be able to keep up their properties. That’s a major concern since the Islamist/communist mayor has pledged to seize ownership of buildings that fall into disrepair.
It’s a malicious scheme. Starve the property owners of revenue they need to keep their units livable, and when they can’t, the government comes in to assume ownership so it can create more slums full of people grateful for “free” housing.
This is diabolical socialism (a redundancy, I know), and it’s familiar to those forced to live under it in places like Cuba or North Korea. I hope the landlords, who want a 3 percent annual increase in rent, win this one.
The mayor ate some crow this past week when he withdrew his threat to have Benjamin Netanyahu arrested if the Israeli prime minister dared to set foot in New York.
In 2024, the International Criminal Court put out a warrant for Mr. Netanyahu, charging him with genocide over Israel’s war in Gaza in response to the murderous Hamas invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Mr. Mamdani said he was cooperating with the ICC, even though the United States does not recognize its authority.
On July 20, President Donald Trump made it clear in a social media post that Mr. Mamdani had better not overstep:
“Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America. He is fighting against the Islamic Republic of Iran, which recently killed 52,000 innocent protestors, and has spent the last 47 years killing American Soldiers, and others. The only ones that should be arrested are the people that led Iran into this unprecedented SPIRAL OF DEATH AND DESTRUCTION, something that should have been dealt with years ago, by previous Presidents!" [capitals in original]
Mr. Mamdani had told the New York Times earlier this month that his staff was still exploring the legalities of apprehending Mr. Netanyahu if he visited the United Nations in September. Then, in a July 21 post on X, the mayor backed off, while still calling the Israeli leader a “war criminal” who is “not welcome in New York City.”
So, the Marxist leader of America’s largest city won’t get to engage in foreign policy after all. Would New York’s finest really have gone along with this insane scheme to pit them against federal agents sent to protect the Israeli leader? Thanks be to God that we won’t have to find out.
It’s just the sort of nuttiness we have come to expect from the unhinged leftists that are seizing control of the Democratic Party. In addition to backing collectivism, open borders, and the terrorist group Hamas, they have passed laws in more than a dozen states to allow quack doctors to give sexually confused minors life-changing drugs and sexual surgeries.
Last Tuesday, 203 House Democrats voted against an amendment to the defense bill to bar males from female sports teams at Department of Defense schools.
The party is clearly lurching into full-tilt Graham Platner territory.
A Nazi-tattooed communist and accused rapist, Mr. Platner, had been picked by Democrat primary voters to run against Susan Collins, Maine’s longtime Republican U.S. senator. After Mr. Platner withdrew, Democrats quickly anointed another leftist, state Senate President Troy Jackson.
Given that the Marxist group Our Revolution, founded by Sen. Bernard Sanders, Vermont independent, has already endorsed him, Mr. Jackson may have a hard time pretending to be a moderate. The smart money is on Ms. Collins to retain her seat.
Elsewhere, there was pushback against the woke agenda of the Smithsonian Institution, whose radical agenda was recently laid bare in a 162-page White House report. Last Tuesday, the museum’s director, Anthea Hartig, faced a barrage of embarrassing questions before the House Subcommittee on Delivering Government Efficiency.
Republican members revealed numerous examples of how the museum had become a leftist indoctrination machine. Ms. Hartig waffled when asked about drag queen exhibits open to children, and about whether men could become women, calling it “irrelevant.”
She dodged inquiries about a “mass action toolkit” that the museum adopted under her leadership and which labeled traits such as “objectivity” and “politeness” as examples of “white supremacy culture.”
Rep. Brandon Gill, Texas Republican, also asked her about an exhibit that said Mickey Mouse had racist origins related to black minstrels. Although Ms. Hartig said, “Mickey Mouse is not racist,” she asserted that Walt Disney’s beloved character was “rooted in minstrelsy.”
In sports news, WNBA star Sophie Cunningham of the Indiana Fever told ESPN that she opposed letting biological men compete in women’s sports. Ms. Cunningham has gained prominence via posted videos of her defending her superstar teammate, Caitlin Clark, a white, straight, Catholic who is getting pummeled by jealous players from other teams.
As far as the trans issue, Ms. Cunningham said that she loved everyone but that, "I want to protect young girls in a locker room and young girls who shouldn't have to go against biological men."
If common sense like this breaks out all over the country, and people connect the dots, Democrats won’t be celebrating after the midterm election in November.
This article originally appeared in The Washington Times.
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