A candidate who ran for mayor of the largest city in America told residents he was going to freeze rents. This is in a city where landlords had already pulled more than 50,000 apartments off the market because it did not make economic sense to rent them. New York isn’t the only place that has overlords making decisions making it economically challenging to rent apartments. California is in a race to the bottom on that issue. The elected leaders – most of whom have never run a business and certainly never been landlords — have decided to tell people, many who have invested a large portion of their life’s savings into apartment buildings, how to run their businesses and secure the value of their investments. They always have another rule that is making it more challenging and more costly to operate. California enacted an ordinance (Assembly Bill 628) that states as of January 1, 2026, landlords must provide a refrigerator and a cooking stove or range for any lease created after that date. It makes clear neither microwaves nor hot plates will substitute for the stove/range requirement. Once installed these pieces of equipment must be… Read More

There is a lot of recent chatter about the Nobel Peace Prize. It strikes me as something that makes no sense for anyone to pursue. Especially anyone who is not distinctly liberal or leftist. Let me explain why. First you need to understand more about the prize itself. The Peace Prize, established in 1901, is a separate category from the other prizes. Alfred Nobel’s will states it should be awarded by a committee of five people selected by the Norwegian Parliament. The other Nobel prizes were designated to be handed out by committees in Sweden. There is a museum to honor the recipients. Like most museums, one wonders whether it is actually to honor the cause or serve as a tourist attraction. The Nobel Peace Center, a museum dedicated to honor the Nobel Peace Prize and its winners, was opened in Oslo in 2005. During the 125 years of the peace prize, it has been awarded 106 times. There were 112 individuals and 31 organizations that were awarded. The museum has a chronological display of each one of the winners. On a recent trip to Oslo, we were familiarizing ourselves with the city center when we spotted the museum of which we were… Read More

It is always better when you sit back for a while after a big event like the elections on November 4th before absorbing the aftermath. It is fun to read “sophisticated” political analysts give their instant dissection of what has occurred and then they tell us what the future holds as they bring out their crystal balls and forecast the future. As usual, so many are wrong. Briefly, here is the reality. There was voting held in areas overwhelmingly populated by Democrats and they won the elections and the ballot initiatives. What would have been earthshattering is if a Republican won. In New York City, the big race, a person who ran as a Democrat, but is really a Socialist, beat the Left-wing Democrat who calls himself a Democrat. Not an earthquake; not even a tremor. Here is the other big news. Democrats and left-leaning people really dislike President Trump. He is the root of all evil. All their candidates ran against Trump, remaining silent about what they are really aiming to do. Only the fake Democrat (you know — the Socialist) told us what he wants to do, but we have come to find out most of what he wants to do is beyond his control as… Read More

As President Trump was trashing the Left not only for assassinating Charlie Kirk, but for more political violence, the Left reared its head and fought back with its classic method – “studies.” One friend sent me a study from a person at libertarian think tank CATO touting right of center violence and another sent an email stating “nonpartisan” studies show more violence comes from the Right. I decided to dig into this and see what the reality was of these studies. First, this is the nature of Left. They have studies and awards. The awards are supposed to be validations of creditability. “He has twelve Pulitzer Prizes.” The people touting those credentials never take a look to see that it is a closed circle who give the awards. The last person on the right to get a Pulitzer was Charles Krauthammer. That was in 1987, and he was writing for the Washington Post. One study was done by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) which gave up any semblance of non-partisanship decades ago. I did not do an in-depth analysis of the ADL study. I left that to two other creditable journalists. First, John Lott Jr. wrote… Read More

In a striking moment of moral clarity, coming at a time when some conservatives have succumbed to confusion or chosen silence, Texas Senator Ted Cruz declared antisemitism has become a “an existential crisis” and a challenge for the conservative movement and the Republican Party.

In today’s environment, where self-styled populists and internet influencers flirt with, or seek to explain away, antisemitism, Ted Cruz stood apart. It is the latest instance of the clarity and principle which has defined Cruz throughout his career.

Today, Ted Cruz is defending the conservative movement by guarding its moral compass.

Would-be influencers and online populists have developed a formula using the conservative lexicon to drift into antisemitic tropes and conspiracies, updated for the 21st century.

This threatens to weaken the conservative movement and the Republican Party on multiple fronts.

It undermines the coherence of modern conservatism and its core principle that people should be judged based on their own conduct. Antisemitism and racism is in direct conflict with this principle of personal responsibility because it… Read More

I never had much regard for Lizzie Warren’s brainchild — the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). It was created with a devious form of funding (profits of the Federal Reserve) to keep it away from the control of our duly elected officials (Congress) and has been funded illegally for the past couple of years as the Fed has had losses, not profits. It claims it has saved Americans over $21 billion. You would think they would be able to work toward getting Americans coherent credit reports as a basic function. Here they have failed. I have never pulled my credit report to inspect it. Do not need to. I have all the credit I need. Occasionally, a lender or my bank pulls a report and tells me there are a couple of write-offs on it. I told them they were phony baloney charges I refused to pay. I do not bow to the threat, “We are going to report it to the credit report companies.” I tell them to go right ahead. I tell the lender I pay the bills I owe. The lender then approves my credit. This issue at hand involves the Beautiful Wife (BW). She is being declined a credit limit increase that she needs because the card is used for business… Read More

In 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on the future of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (Act). Their ruling will have profound effects on our country. While reading a column by a leading light of the Left, I got immense clarity on this issue. First, let me be clear the Act was a significant turning point in America. The Act clarified the 14th Amendment ratified in 1868 making clear that America’s former slaves had rights equal to all other Americans. If their voting rights were impaired, then the value of their rights were diminished. The Act addressed that. Leave it to the Left of today to misinterpret the entire matter. In his column Opinion | The Death of the Fourth American Republic – The New York Times Jamelle Bouie defines clearly for me how misguided his thinking is on this matter. In the third paragraph he provides me with great clarity but not in the manner he intended. He says this, “In Louisiana, as is true in much of the Deep… Read More

There are essentially two kinds of politicians: Those who admit to failings and tell the voters they are sorry, and they will fix it. That is rare. The more frequent ones are those who, when they are flailing, point fingers at a bogeyman and focus on something other than the true issues causing failure. Gavin Newsom, who wants to be president, is a perfect example of the latter. He deflects. I ran into a perfect example of deflection recently. Britain made a failed attempt to solve the world’s energy crisis. The Telegraph had a story on September 30th: “Britain is paying the highest electricity prices in the world as net zero costs rise.” The Liberals, the current party in power, have a 15% approval rating largely based on this issue. Their Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband, told the Guardian “The truth is the reason why people’s living standards are stuck, why growth has been so low and public services are on their knees is trickle-down economics from the 80’s.” Blaming Maggie Thatcher from 45 years ago – sure, that will work. Gallivanting Gavin got lucky and has his favorite foil back in office — Donald Trump. It is too warm,… Read More