The Jay Weber Podcast #0004 4-17-26

My neighbors also have their trees fall in every which way. So I think we might have had a little bit of a tornadic activity over us here. But yeah, I'm glad everyone got shot up, everyone listening got through it, okay. And this is of course the sort of thing that we see every spring, you know, these unsettled weather patterns, heavy rains, high winds, hail. Here in Wisconsin, we have a good trail primary going on and one of the Democrat candidates is she's a useless pretender of women anyway.

Her name is Sarah Godluski. She's the secretary of State running for governor now, but she's got national attention for a meltdown she had on social media over Hale. Here's what it sounded like. Republicans say, we don't have climate change, but this is all guys, hail in my front yard. This is not normal, and we can't keep ignoring our environment. Greg is she blaming Republicans for Hale.

ball sized hail. We all probably know at least one or two people who's actually lost a car to gulf ball sized hail. It was all digged up. So this isn't something we're only seeing now in the twenty first century due to climate change. But Greg, what tickled me the most about this video of Sarah Godluski melting down and blaming the right for Mother Nature was that she was standing on her porch and we could see the hail behind her. It's lying on the grass and it's

on her portrail. You can see it's about rock salt sized hail, which is not out of the ordinary. So she's even lying about the size of the hail.

on that. On the podcast today, we'll talk about the polpe's class with President Trump, zororon Mamdannie's government run grocery stores are incredibly unfair income tax system, Kamala getting shived by her own side of the eye on now, and Columbia's finally moving to deal do something with their cocaine hippos. I mean, how's that for a tease.

every piece of your financial life. Visit Creative Planning dot com. Is your introductory meeting. That's Creative Planning dot Com. Your team awaits paid for by Creative Planning and SEC registered investment advisor. The speaker's statements are not an endorsement of the firm, So my take on this little verbal war between Pope Leo and President Trump is quite frankly a big yawn in the grand scheme of things. Who cares?

And I say that because it isn't surprising that a pope feels like he needs to weigh in on a war or on a moral question, especially after the President of the United States has put out an all advised tweet that seemed to have him threatening to wipe out an entire country. I understand why Leo felt he needed

to pipe in here. I also understand why President Trump would be frustrated that, yet again, we have another pope who only seems to be interested in defending the most backward and evil regimes on the planet under the guise of mercy and peace and understanding. If I was President Trump, I'd be frustrated too that I'm taking care of a fifty year threat to the enlightened Western world. I'm standing against tyranny and brutality that's been so extreme over the

decades that it can be categorized as evil. The evils that the Iranian Mullas have committed against their fellow man over the last forty five years are immeasurable and horrific and abhorrened. Hell. Right before the pope chimed in to defend the Iranian side of this equation, Iran's Mullah's had just concluded an effort to cat kill forty thousand of their own people in an effort to keep control of

their brutal regime. For those not following along, the evil Mullahs who run Iran are engaged in a campaign of extermination currently this is ongoing. They're trying to imprison or kill any Iranian who might oppose them or publicly voice dissent or threaten in any way their hold on power.

They had just gotten done with the extermination of about forty thousand of their own countrymen when Leo chimed in here and felt the need to speak for the regime and happen on the wrong side of the moral equation. And that's the thing, you know. Pope Leo has chimed in on the wrong side of a much larger moral argument here. And Trump never should have sent the tweet that suggested he'd wipe out an higher country. That was dumb, dumb, dumb.

But Pope Leo seemed to be favoring the evil Muslims in this equation even before that moment, and he used the tweet as a chance to speak in favor of some moral clarity or some such thing. When he and the Catholic Church have largely refused to speak up for or get involved with all sorts of other moral arguments, especially those related to the evils of the Islamist extremists. What Aronzmulas have done to their own people over forty

years has been a moral abomin nation. Have we ever seen a pope so morally exercised about that that he puts out global declarations of peace and denounces the evil and keeps it up for a week or so. No, not that I can recall, is the Catholic Church waging a moral war against the organized and horrific slaughter of Christians and Jews and any non Muslim in any of these African and Middle Eastern countries where it's occurring. No,

and that violence against Christians has been ongoing. Apparently Leo doesn't really have much of a say to say about that. Instead, it's a social media post from the president who's leading a military effort to bring about a larger global peace that really sets him off. Good grief. I'm a Catholic myself, and I have no particular problem with Pope Leo. I think he's younger and more energetic and more willing to do the outreach work to grow the church than the

last three tired and sickly old popes were. I think Leo's been a real breath of fresh air for the Catholic Church. And it's a bonus that he's an American, certainly, but that also means he's going to chime in on America's issues more often. And it could also mean that Pope Leo, when he was just a cardinal there living in Chicago, was a liberal cardinal living in Chicago with maybe a touch of TDS. When he was a liberal living in Chicago and elevated to pope, I and some

others said, don't think this guy is a conservative. Don't think he's going to be a more moderate or conservative pope than Francis was. And so far, every time the Pope has shown us his political side, he's been supporting the activist left. I'm not shocked at this, and you shouldn't be either. But in this latest dust up with Trump, Leo the man seems to have gone too far in his attempt to announce any war as unjust and any warrior is unjust, and he's even gone so far as

to misinterpret scripture. And hey, I'm certainly no Theolo but those who are say that the pope quoting Isaiah one point fifteen is a real stretch. Pope Leo suggested that basically, no war is just and no one fighting a war can be heard by God. God doesn't hear their prayers. This is basically what the Pope said in response to Trump and his war quote. Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood.

That's from Isaiah. But Isaiah's context was in reference to the corruption and injustices of the Judeans, and it makes no sense when applied to Trump and the Iranian war. According to these theologians, Leo is claiming God doesn't listen to the prayers of those who fight or wage war because Jesus preached his love and mercy. But Jesus didn't preach pacifism, nor did he suggest that there was no such thing as a just war, or a just cause

or a just reaction that might include violence. Leo made it sound as if no war can be a just war or a just cause against evil, when they certainly can be. Trump says it's not so prising that President Trump thinks Pope Leo should be preaching against the evils of Iran's leaders and those evils that they'd done to their fellow man over the last forty five years. Instead of being worried about Trump saying, LEO should be denouncing

the recent slaughter of forty thousand Iranian people. You'd think Trump's reaction doesn't surprise me, But it is surprising that a new PULP doesn't think there's such a thing as a just war, or that God won't listen to anyone resorting to violence. Trump and the US military here are resorting to violence in an effort to deal with a longtime evil and bring about a more peaceful globe. LEO really can't see that. Well, here's a good litmus test for the PULP. When the Iranian Mullahs are rushing to

praise you, you're probably on the wrong side. When you've got radical Islam all excited about your comments and your reaction, you might be standing on the wrong side of the cloud. Iran's radical president ran I mean, he rushed to praise Poplo after he denounced President Trump and this war action. The same POLP that's been absolutely silent on the atrocities committed by the radical imams, and that Iranian regime can suddenly find his voice when it comes to criticizing Trump

for not being gentle enough or diplomatic enough. It really is farcical this new evil fan of Leo's. The Iranian president said, his holiness, Pope Leo, I condemned the insult of your excellency on behalf of the great nation of Iran, and declare that the desecration of Jesus, the prophet of peace and brotherhood, is not acceptable to any free person. I wish you glory by a law. I love the reference to the free person. But this is the same man who would crucify Christ all over again if Christ

was walking the earth today. As one pundit put it, this is the same regime that has driven thousands of Christians out of Iran, persecuted them, imprisoned them, denying them the ability to worship freely, and in some cases subjecting them to torture or death. Now that same regime wants to posture as a defender of Christianity and weigh in on church matters. Yeah, and Pope Leo's apparently okay with

being used by them as they do it. These attacks on Trump had been morally confused at best, and for the record, anyone insisting that we Catholics have got to agree with the Pope on this are incorrect. Catholics are not required to agree with the Pope at all times. The Second Vatican Council even made this clear quote. The Church claims no special divine competence in reaching political conclusions, and so no, you don't have to feel guilty about this.

You do not, as a Catholic, have to agree with Pope Leo on this or feel guilty that you don't. In fact, here's a shocker. According to a new poll, six and ten Catholics are with Trump on the Iranian question, with only four and ten being more like Leo. I guess.

The poll found that church going Catholics found a fifty eight percent job appropriating for Trump and fifty percent approve of Trump taking the military action against Iran that he is so among Catholics who actually practice the faith, six and ten approve of Trump's presidency and at least a slight majority of them approve of how he's handling Iran. Look, if a pope didn't chime in on the morality of war, et cetera, he wouldn't be doing his job.

certain African nations for a long long time. Now it's as if our new Pope doesn't see the genuine evil and inhumanity that's playing out around the globe and instead just wants to nitpick on political matters, which brings us to why Leo is choosing to take on Trump. Several voices at the Vatican are now explaining it this way.

They say Leo sees the global disorder of the day as an opportunity to boost the profile of the Catholic Church and repair its global standing after the sexual abuse scandals, etc. Which were also global. By the way, this wasn't just an American priest thing, if you don't know, but this is the claim. Leo is seeing the global disorder as a blessing and an opportunity. Quote, this is just a huge blessing. It's wonderful for the church all over the world that he's the guy who can stand up to Trump.

They point out Leo is also considerably more popular in the US than Trump, so that works to their advantage. They point out that Leo is considerably more popular in the US than Trump. They like this. He enjoys a thirty four percentage point net positive rating compared with a twelve percentage point net negative rating for Trump. They're also still annoyed that six and ten Catholics supported Trump in twenty twenty four, and they hope Leo's scolding gets them

back in line. Catholics make up about one fifth of all US voters, by the way, and historically they split almost evenly between the parties. It's almost fifty to fifty. So even that slight bump in Catholic support for Trump was definitive in twenty twenty four, and the lefty Catholics

are still stewing over it. But the conservative Catholics remain loyal to Trump, and if that CBS poll is correct, fifty eight percent of Catholics overall approve of the President and nearly that many approve of his actions in Iran. I don't see how Leo's really helping himself or the church out here. If that's the case. Vice President Vance is a Catholic, and he was asked about polpe Leo injecting himself into the morality of this war. Here. Here's what he had to say.

got to make sure it's anchored in the truth. And that's one of the things that I try to do, and it's certainly something I would expect from the clergy, whether they're Catholic or Protestant.

implications for public policy. Our stances against abortion, the death penalty, our stances on poverty and charity, etc. They all intersect in the political plane. Obviously, I don't think a pope needs to quote stay out of politics, but I do think that when a pope chimes in, it should be only after careful thought and with moral clarity. In our rather new pope failed to do that in this instance.

I did a segment on the last podcast related to Kamala Harris and how the left wing accomplices in the mainstream media are going to spend the next three years trying to force her onto the voters of this country

as a lost opportunity in twenty twenty four. They are trying hard to convince voters that not electing Kamala in twenty twenty four was a mistake, and I was saying, the American people can believe they made a mistake with Donald Trump if they do and still not believe that Kamala Harris would have been the answer, And that, of course is the case. We know it wasn't a mistake.

Kamala Harris ran in twenty twenty and was so thoroughly rejected as the answer for her party she was forced to drop out before the voting even started in Iowa in twenty twenty four. Of course, after four years as veep, the Bidens forced her onto the party leadership because they

were forcing Joe Biden out. If you remember, Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama and others wanted to have a quickie mini primary because they didn't want Kamala to be the standard bearer in twenty twenty four, the Bidens, as punishment for daring to push Joe out, turned around and forced Kamala onto the ticket. They engineered her candidacy, and of course

she lost terribly. We saw how that ended. More importantly, though, we saw in technicolor during that stretch that the American people simply don't want or like Kamala Harris in public office and so it isn't terribly surprising that at least some segment of the Democrat base doesn't want to make this mistake again in twenty twenty eight, and they're going to push back against this mainstream media attempt to make

her the nominee. I'm not surprised that some factions of the left side of the aisle are reacting to this latest attempt to relaunch Kamala negatively. But the Huffington Post, Okay, that's interesting. The Huffington Post published a piece this week from one of their columnists named Kevin Robillard, and it was brutal. And this is another reason that this is noteworthy. The tone of this piece easily could have been softer, more subtle, less direct, not so harsh, not so mocking.

Realized they made a choice here over at the Huffington Post. The socialist progressive editors at the Huffington Post could have chosen to take a far less harsh tone and still gotten their point across if they wanted to criticize a

fellow Democrat. Instead, they chose to go heavy. This is evidence of what I was saying on Tuesday, Kamala Harris will not be the Democrat nominee in twenty twenty eight, and try as they might, the mainstream leftist news media is not going to be able to successfully force her onto the voters of this country or that party. Huff Post headline, Kamala Harris twenty twenty eight, question mark Democratic

operatives and donors hope not. Here's just a sample of what this guy wrote, and I think you'll agree it's kind of dead on, he says. Harris is like this drunk buddy of mine from way back when, and not because of the drunk part, well not entirely because of the drunk part. So he even hints Kamala as a quiet drunk, as some of us on the right have, because sometimes she appears or sounds drunk. He continues, this friend of his would have exactly one cocktail too many.

He wouldn't be stumbling drunk or slurring drunk, but just drunk enough to make things embarrassingly awkward. He'd approach a woman, or even an entire table full of women, completely unaware that nobody was interested. He had zero ability to take a not so subtle hint, read body language, detect, tone, nothing, The author says, somebody, usually me, would have to ride to the rescue. It's not going to happen, buddy, Come on back to the table. We got another picture. That

gentle reader is Kamala Harrison the White House. This guy says, He continues, the only reason Joe Biden picked Harris as his running mate is that he'd public talked himself into promising a black female running mate, and the only choices were Harris or Stacy Abrams, and Abrams was busy costplaying as governor of Georgia. He says. Harris, not to put too fine a point on it was the highest ranking

diversity higher of all time. If she succeeded at a single job that Biden gave her, yeah, there is no If he reconsiders, he says she failed all of them, from Borders R to National Security point person. By all appearances, Harris seems to think she earned the nomination in twenty twenty four, even though the big names like Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi wanted to hold a mini primary. Precisely

to Kneecapper, diversity hires always think they earned it. But even a cursory glance at Harris's performance as VEEP and every cringe inducing day of her comically inept but mercifully brief presidential campaign showed a woman with no qualifications aside from a blive persistence. The job requires so much more than word salads and boxed wines. This is just brutal. And it's not some evil conservative or right wing pundit trashing er. It's a staff columnist at the Huffington Post.

Kamala will not be the Democrats twenty twenty eight nominee. I've been flat out guaranteeing that since she lost in twenty twenty four. All right, next item on Tuesday's podcast, I asked our Americans even going to know that their tax refund is larger this year because President Trump and the Republican Congress helped them out with some tax breaks

in the Big Beautiful Bill. This is the filing deadline now in which no taxes on tips are overtime and no income tax on Social Security, new tax breaks for car buyers all kick in. The IRS says just based on the early returns that they've handled, the average tax return is three hundred and fifty dollars larger than it otherwise would have been. This as the Trump White House predicts that the overall average return could turn out to

be about one thousand dollars more than expected. And so we've got all this great news related to our overall level of federal taxation and our tax returns this year, and is anyone going to hear about it? I've been asking. I am firmly blaming the mainstream news media for refusing to report on any story that might reflect positively on President Trump and the publican party. Here, these major news outlets have turned into genuine left wing propaganda machines rather

than news operations. And if you know anything about propaganda, you know that it's not just about hyping and spinning and lying in order to make yourself and your side of the aisle look great. It's also about taking every opportunity to trash, malign, and step on your opponents and

your enemies. And given that our major media outlets are now enemies of the truth and the American right, well there is no way in their minds that they can be expected to honestly report on the merits of the big beautiful Bill or the wins that it's bringing to the American people. It is therefore not surprising to run across this headline from the left wing political website. Tax

Day arrives with Republicans struggling to sell their cuts. So we finally do find a so called news outlet that's going to report on this blackout of coverage on tax relief, and they spin it as though it's the Republican's fault. And I hope you noticed they portrayed the tax relief as cuts, as in, this isn't a win for taxpayers, it's cuts that took something away from somebody. I mean,

it's just despicable political claims. Republicans hope that last year's tax cuts would offer giant political benefits with taxpayers receiving supersized refunds and then rewarding them at the ballot box. That doesn't look like it's going to happen. Refunds haven't jumped as much as Republicans had hoped. See how they choose to spin it. Already, with only the first waves of tax returns being processed, the average refund is saving American workers three hundred and fifty dollars. But you know,

we get this spin. It's a failure. It's a failure, not as much as expected. It's just pathetic. Then they go on to pretend as if it's the Republican's fault that their win isn't getting any attention. It's the Republicans quote struggling to get their message out, and it is not. I tell you, it's just it's not the refusal of the major meat news outlets to report the story. But this is the typical sort of ingrained and overt media bias we've come to simply expect in the country. I

guess they say. That's one reason why Republicans are still doing everything they can to keep last year's tax cuts top of mind this tax Day, even as they also be guilty of over promising on the refunds. Republican officials also have another problem. Any benefits they might get from talking up the tax cuts are running headlong into the war in Iran and surging gas prices associated with it,

making their goal of holding Congress more daunting. Meanwhile, they report, the Bipartisan Policy Center found in a poll of its own last week that barely a quarter of taxpayers who filed their returns believed the tax law had helped them. Only a third of those who'd taken advantage of the no tax on tips or no tax on income provisions thought they'd gotten a boost, potentially even more troublesome sign

for the Republicans. Well, the result of this poll is because the news media hasn't done its job or reported on the facts of these tax cuts to the American people. The folks at political cannot possibly be this subtuse. The left wing media has put a blackout on any positive news related to these tax breaks, and then Politico pretends it's surprising that most Americans haven't heard about the tax breaks and don't think they were helped by them. Folks.

According to the IRS, twenty million Americans took advantage of the no taxes on tips or overtime provision, twenty million working people. Please ask them if they don't think it helped them, or if they'd like to go back to having their tips and they're overtime taxed. What do you think they'd say? Fifty one million seniors are benefiting from

the no taxes on Social Security provision. Please ask those seniors if they've noticed the change, and if they haven't, asked them if we should just go back to taxing those Social Security benefits. Hey, I mean, if you don't notice the difference, why not just go back to taxing your tips and your overtime and your social security. Right, I'd love to see the political and the mainstream outlets

try to square those circles. Fifty one million seniors just got to keep more of their own money due to the Trump GOP tax cuts, and the accomplished news media refuses to tell them about it or admit that it's a win for them. It's just abhorrent how far our so called news media has fallen over the last twenty five years. But hey, in twenty twenty eight, when these tax changes are set to expire, watch how loudly these same media outlet's howl if the next Congress doesn't renew them.

They don't exist today if you're a lefty activist pretending to be a reporter. But they'll be the most important taxpayers ever given to the American people if the next Congress doesn't renew them, or if this is if Republicans are in control of Congress. Of course, I mean fast forward two years. If these accomplice leftists in the media can portray the Republicans as wanting to punish seniors, you know they will. That then will be the spin and the news media will have done a complete one to

eighty on the importance of these tax provisions. But you know what, if they're popular and the American people want to keep them and Democrats control the Congress, well, if the Democrats control Congress in twenty twenty eight and want to let these tax cuts expire, well then you can write the alternative spin. If a Democrat con told Congress wants these to expire, well, renewing them amounts to continuing

tax breaks for the rich. Right, today's left is so transparent you can predict the sort of scumbaggery that they're going to pull years from now. Past Democrat congresses and presidents have already been destroying this country with their completely unfair and one sided taxation, and it's like today's leftists are just getting started. The most major of all major themes in this Democrat Party right now is tax the rich,

Tax the rich, tax the rich. Well, the truth is that the so called rich in the upper middle class are already paying virtually all the federal bills in this country. We've been through these stants before on the radio show, but they're right from the irs, and yet most Americans never hear them. This is another failure of the mainstream media. The top one percent of wage earners pay forty percent of all of our federal bills. They pay forty percent

of all income taxes. The top ten percent of earners in this country pay seventy two percent of federal government's bills. The top fifty percent of earners. This is just among We know that half of the country doesn't even have a job, but of the half of the country that's working, half of those people, the top fifty percent pay ninety

seven percent of our federal bills. As it is, many households in America pay no income taxes at all, and the bottom twenty percent actually get benefits from the tax system that they never paid into. That's right. It's now two in five Americans who are getting some amount of welfare through the IRS. They get a so called tax return even though they never paid into the system. And you know, some of those payments are sizable, they're many

thousands of dollars. This is the true farce and screwed job that's going on as Democrats and their activists lie to the American people, and amongst those who do know how much they're getting screwed. The flight from the Democrat cities and the states has been measurable. I tell you, if Americans really knew how much they were being screwed, they would be furious with the Democrat Party and a

Democrat would never win another election. Historians are going to look back at the Democrats forced and extended lockdowns during COVID as a decision that majorly backfired on the liberal left as well. It gave all sorts of CEOs and major income earners finally gave them a chance to pause and reflect and look at how much they were being robbed by the federal government. It gave them a chance to see how much they were getting screwed under blue

state tax laws as well. It also gave them a chance to understand just how much today's left hates them and wants to repeatedly punish them just for being successful. The pandemic lockdowns had tens of thousands of professionals and high tax states moving to low tax states, and had hundreds, if not thousands, of CEOs and major business owners deciding to move entire companies or large portions of them from

high tax states to low tax states. The Democrats and their activists and the Blue state leaders did great harm to themselves and their communities by giving the American people time to pause and reflect on how much they were getting screwed by their respective governments. And we aren't even talking about the silent attacks that have been going on against the middle class in this country as well, especially

in these Democrat states. The Wall Street Journal editors correctly point out in these blue states, even as their leaders chant tax the tax the rich, they're also hammering down on the middle class with more taxation. Bernie aoc these other minds a dimwits want to insist we don't have to tax the middle class if we tax the rich. The truth is, even as these blue states have taxed the rich more, they've also been taxing the middle class more. Quote.

The dirty little secret of progressive states is that they tax their rich and middle classes more. They also wallop small businesses, which typically pay tax at their state's individual rate. The more businesses pay in tax, the less they can invest in higher YEP. That's the other side effect of the pandemic that historians will see more clearly. The pandemic ended with a flurry of new taxes on the Blue states, and its suppressed a lot of new business activity and

growth across the country. And to come full circle, is any of that reported or reported on honestly by the corporate news media, No, of course not. Here's a fun little story you probably won't hear elsewhere. Columbia's leaders have finally decided to do something about Pablo Escobar's hippos. Some of you are going to know the basic story here.

Notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar had all sorts of exotic animals when he was atop the Colombian drug trade, and among them were four hippos that he'd apparently bought from a private breeder in Texas. Well. They grew huge, of course, and when Escobar was killed in nineteen ninety three and his drug empire was crumbling, the leaders of Colombia didn't quite know what to do with these four massive hippos,

so they decided to just leave them be. They didn't want to euthanize them, and didn't really know what to do with a five thousand pound hippo, and yeah, they

weigh that much. Hippos generally ranged somewhere between three thousand and seven thousand pounds, So rather than deal with them, Colombia's leaders just let the hippos roam around free and live in a stretch of river in a little area that they felt comfortable and the climate, of course was perfect for them, and so they just left them, even as they sold off and shipped off or euthanized the

other exotic animals that Escobar had. Well, thirty years later and four hippos has turned into one hundred and seventy hippos. Colombia now has a hit a population of one hundred and seventy and if they're going to do anything about them as an invasive species, g now is the time, isn't it so? Colombia's environmental minister says the country's approved

a plan to euthanize at least eighty of them. The Colombian government says they're an invasive species according to one story, and they're a threat to humans and they're damaging local ecosystems. Obviously they're very disruptive. This environmental minister says, if we don't do this, we will not be able to control the population. She also said that they've resorted to inbreeding

and have visible genetic damage due to it. Well, there aren't any reports that the animals actually killed her seriously injured people. They are threatening people in local towns. They say they're causing traffic and boating accidents. They've killed crops and livestock. So the Colombian government has been looking for an alternative way to stop this population boom for years

and they haven't been able to find it. They tried sterilization and relocation, but those things are expensive, obviously and haven't worked out. As Jeff Goldbloom's character told us in Jurassic Park, nature finds a way. I find it interesting and wrong that they're only going to cull the herd now, because it's not going to take care of the problem as harsh as it is. Those hippos need to be euthanized.

If there are issues with the gene pool, you can't even move them, right, I mean you shouldn't even move them around and relocate them at this point. Why would you mix those genes with some African hippo gene pool and transfer some of the genetic problems. They just need to be euthanized, and in short order, our Colombia is going to have a runaway hippo population, just like Florida has a runaway Boa constrictor and monkey population. You can't hem in nature and expect to keep a population of

wild animals contained to just a few. All right, that's a fun item. Let's get to the next item. So it's going to take at least three years and thirty or forty million dollars in order for Zoran Mamdani to prove that socialism doesn't work and that big government cannot run grocery stores more efficiently or competently than the private sector. This should be obvious by now, but this is the bottom line when it comes to this Nitwitz grand idea

of government run grocery stores. Mom Donnie ran on this promise of government running stores during his campaign, if you remember, and unlike the free buses and most of the new freebe's he was promising the voters of New York, this is one he insists he can move forward with. So this week Mom Donnie announced the first government grocery store is going to cost thirty million dollars to get up

and running. And you know that price is going to rise significantly before the project is completed, because it always does. That's always the case with public works projects. And come on, this is a New York public works project. They're not going to build it and get it up and running for thirty million dollars. That cost will probably double before

the doors ever open. Trust me, that's a guarantee. And by the way, the experts in the grocery store industry say a private grocer could do this for about half the cost. This is just to put up the building and get it going. As things now stand, New York grocery CEOs say the project should cost about fifteen or twenty million and that's it. So Mom Donnie has already

lost to the private sector on that front. One expert says, quote, thirty million dollars for one store is exceptionally high, considering land prices are a significant part of the capital costs of new construction, and the city has announced that it rents will be waived, so they're already getting a break on the land. And they're still going to run this type of cost, and that's just building it. They also say, quote, the grocery industry is low margin, so heavy subsidies will

be needed to counteract these inherent inefficiencies. They say, yeah, government brings in efficiency, and that's a long time tenant of any government and any bureaucracy. They can never, ever, never do better than the private sector, and I mean anything. The Post Office can't seem to make a profit. They're eternally in debt. Yet Ups and Amazon and other private courier services can make a profit. Why is that the government's been patently unable to run a railroad for decades?

Amtrak is so heavily subsidized it's crazy. But government run grocery stores are going to be the very model of efficiency and force lower grocery prices into the private sector. I mean bullplop. Government run grocery stores are only going to heap even more runaway expenses and subsidies onto the backs of the taxpayers as they try to pay for their own groceries out of their own pocket. This is

a farce before it ever gets underway. This week on x zoron Mam, Donnie posted I was elected as a Democratic socialist and will continue to govern as a Democratic socialist. One hundred days in and we're just getting started. I read that, and I felt the need to respond. I said, please keep making this known, Zorn, Please keep making it known that you're a democrat socialist. Say it often so

there can be no mistake. You're a democratic socialist as New York spirals downward on virtually every front under your watch. And I mean that I wasn't being snarky. I do hope that mom Donnie and his supporters spend the next four years making sure everyone knows that this is what democratic socialism looks like, because it's going to be a

costly disaster at every turn. And I know that America's leftists think that they're softening the blow, they're softening the word socialism when they put democratic in front of it, and to the dim witted, I don't doubt that this works. I don't doubt that this works on the naive young idealists and the perpetual older dimwitz. But democratic socialism is socialism, and it's failed always and repeatedly around the globe, and it's not going to work here in no matter how

the activists left in the Democratic Party package it. Mom Donnie wants to start with one government or grocery store in each of the New York's five boroughs. He claims the total cost to this is going to be seventy million dollars. Well, that can't possibly be true if the first one is going to cost thirty million dollars on its own. This is going to be more like one hundred and fifty or two hundred million dollars in order

to realize this five borrowed dream. And I'm going to predict right now that the first store will already be deemed an expensive disaster before the fifth store ever opens and borrow number five, you know what I mean. I'm going to predict now that there will be questions as to whether New York should even move ahead with stores number four and five because stores one in two will have turned out to be such an obvious disappointment. And

that's just something to watch for. And for the record, this government run grocery store concept has been tried in a few other cities, like Kansas City, and it's quickly failed. I don't see Mom Donnie or New York socialists being any more successful with it, do you. If these stores don't work in the more rural communities with smaller populations and where shoplifting isn't even an issue, how can they possibly work in New York City, where the population is

massive and where shoplifting is a massive problem. I'll ask it now, how do Mom, Donnie and the leftists plan to keep food on the shelves when everyone knows that it's a store run by bleeding hearts who are accountable to no one. These are people who will view shoplifting as stealing from government. That makes it especially okay rights. It seems to be okay for most of these people to steal from the private sector grocery store. It'll be seem even more logical to steal from government to them.

I'll also predict now that the theft is going to be the ultimate and never ending nightmare for these government run grocery stores. If they think bodegas and privately run stores have a problem with shoplifting in New York right now, just wait until these socialist groceries are open. The shelves are going to look as bare as the photos that we've seen of Cuba and Soviet grocery stores over the decades.

There won't be any food on them. Another fun twist, the owners of the bodegas and the smaller grocery stores that do already serve these neighborhoods are certain that Mamdanie's government run operation is going to put them out of business. You know, these are the men and the women who are already grinding out a living by running a bodega or a small grocery in the crappiest parts of New York City. Now government's going to come in and add

to the competition. What a gut punch to these people, right quote, It's going to affect us real hard, said Victor Vasquez, thirty three, manager at the City Fresh Market. Our prices might have to go up. I assume they will. Yes, you know. The Washington Examiner editors put the so perfectly, I'm just going to steal a few paragraphs for them. They say the supermarket business is inherently low margin and intensely competitive. Walmart and Amazon, with its whole food stores,

compete aggressively on price and delivery. One key to the success of these two giants of the American economy is their laser focus on distribution costs. At their core, Walmart and Amazon are logistics companies, private sectory grocery chains succeed or fail based on their ability to manage costs, negotiate with suppliers, and respond to demand in that manner. They say, a city run market, by contrast, would operate under political

rather than economic incentives. Decisions about pricing, hiring, product selection, and location would inevitably be influenced by political considerations, union pressures, and bureaucratic constraints rather than the discipline of profit and loss. It's true, they continued, that disconnect matters. Without the pressure to turn a profit, a government owned supermarket has little incentive to control costs. Over time, what begins as a

pilot program could easily become a permanent fiscal burden. They conclude by saying, advocates of Mamdani's supermarkets argue that the food deserts justify government intervention, but the reality is that throughout the city a consumer can find a grocery store with an attendant of walk. If grocery access is limited in certain areas, the causes are complex, including crime, zoning restrictions, high operating costs. They say, a city on supermarket does

nothing to address those underlying issues. In fact, it may exacerbate them. I agree with that the private marketplace works, and when it comes to food, groceries and feeding America, the private marketplace has worked miracles over time. It's our model in America that's responsible for the fact that there is such a high standard of living globally. Nowhere else in the world other countries quote poor people suffering from an obesity epidemic that is uniquely America. We know how

to feed ourselves and our people. And so not only will Mam Donni's government run grocery stoes not work, but they're not needed. They really aren't. And let's acknowledge that Zoran thinks he has this all worked out too. I think this is going to be important as well. Let's acknowledge that Mom Donnie and his team think they finally

have this figured out. Their government run grocery store is going to work because it's going to be run by people who got their experience running private sector grocery stores. This too, It just tickles me. City Hall officials said they'll identify third party expert grocery operators to run Mom Donnie's public groceries. Operators will be required to directly pass along any in kind or direct subsidies to consumers in the form of reduced prices. Those operators will also be

under strict pricing, affordability, labor, operating and reporting requirements. They say, So let's step back, am in. Mom Donnie's going to prove that socialism can work if private sector experts run it. Well, If a country goes socialist, where do the private sector experts come from to run the operation? After a generation or two? You're really going to be screwed, folks. If socialism only works if private sector experts run it, how

long can that last? Everything about this is farcical and fraudulent, and it just it frustrates me. There's a perpetual ignorance that comes along with socialism and with every new generation of naive, well meaning young person. For some reason, the catastrophic failures of socialism and communism over time, over generations never seems to be learned. It's never internalized and then dismissed as a false hope. Socialism and communism are full

of false hopes and false promises. I mean, if we can state anything at this point about socialism and communism based on our shared human existence on this planet, we can state that socialism and communism are the path to economic and social ruin period. These are disastrous ideologies that each new generation thinks they can figure out, and they can't because it's a falsehood. The underlying premises of socialism

and communism are falsehoods. The famous cliche from the left is, well, we just haven't done it right yet, but that doesn't mean we can't do it right yet. Does in part because you're all nit wits, but also in part the more serious response is, it's the ideologies that are based on false definitions of fairness and false premises related to human nature, and that's why they fail.