Here's An Idea To Get 30% Cheaper Groceries In New York Without Taxpayer Subsidies: Allow Walmart!

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Here's An Idea To Get 30% Cheaper Groceries In New York Without Taxpayer Subsidies: Allow Walmart!

  • During his campaign for office last fall, our new Mayor Zohran Mamdani promised to make groceries “affordable” for New Yorkers; but he provided few specifics.

  • Some specifics then emerged in late July, when Mamdani issued a big press release on his proposed public grocery store project. We learned that there are plans for five municipally-owned stores — one in each borough of the City — and that the groceries these stores will sell, or at least a “core basket” of them, will be “30% cheaper.” We know that the groceries will be “30% cheaper” because the Mayor’s press release says so multiple times:

  • Today [July 28], Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani, Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su and New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) announced that a core basket of everyday groceries will be 30 percent cheaper at the five new municipal grocery stores. . . . “A trip to the grocery store shouldn’t spell dread for New Yorkers [said Mayor Mamdani]. That’s why we are guaranteeing a 30% discount on the most common and most critical groceries. . . .” ‍ ‍

  • Well OK, 30% cheaper than what?

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For The Left, Nothing Succeeds Like Failure

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  • A couple of weeks ago, law professor Jonathan Turley devoted one of his columns to this seeming anomaly — that the Left somehow gains from its own failures. The headline of his column was “The worse it gets, the better it is: American leftism is thriving on its own failures.”‍ ‍

  • The theme of the piece is that the failure of a policy of the Left is never admitted to be a failure, but rather is only seen as a reason that the taxpayers haven’t yet devoted sufficient resources to the issue, and therefore the answer is to double down and spend yet more money on the failed policy. Turley provides several examples of the phenomenon, in the areas of immigration, health care, public education and housing.

  • My reaction is, I’m glad that someone besides myself is finally noticing. However, Turley has barely scratched the surface, and indeed omits to mention some of the very biggest examples.

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The Democratic Socialists Of America And Dolly Parton

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The Democratic Socialists Of America And Dolly Parton

The sad news today is that country music legend Dolly Parton has died.

I admit that I’m not particularly a fan of country music. It’s not that I don’t like it; I just devote my time to other things. But everybody knew about Dolly Parton, and as far as I can tell there isn’t anyone who did not like and admire her. Mary Katherine Ham summarizes the reaction in a tweet this afternoon:

A year of mourning for one of the only people we all agreed on. So sad. What a lady and what a life.

Parton lived a life of hard work and of gratitude. She worked her way up from nothing.

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Democratic Socialists Commemorate Fidel Castro's 100th Birthday

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As you may have seen, August 13, 2026 would have been the 100th birthday of Fidel Castro. Fidel had retired as Dictator of Cuba all the way back in 2006 at age 80, and then died ten years ago in 2016.

Commemorations of people who have been dead for ten years should be reserved for those who did something worthwhile in their lives. In Fidel’s case, during his more than half-century of absolute rule over Cuba, he brought poverty and ruin to the island’s economy and people. Yet somehow he remains a hero to the Left.

If you don’t believe me, check out this post from the website of the Democratic Socialists of America on August 13. You would think it must be a parody, but the url is dsausa.org, and the site has tabs for all the other DSA claptrap.

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The Fantasyland Of New York City's Discount Grocery Stores

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The Fantasyland Of New York City's Discount Grocery Stores

If you have paid attention at all to New York’s idiotic new Mayor Zohran Mamdani, you probably know that one of his big promises is to open a chain of City-owned grocery stores. These stores, supposedly, will solve the problem of “affordability” of groceries by offering a basket of standard items at prices some 30% below what the other stores charge.

Now I recognize that there has been some substantial inflation in the food sector of the economy in the past few years. In some cases, and for some families, the price increases have been unpleasant or even difficult. However, I submit that there is no way to look at the American food supply and delivery system without seeing it as something close to a miracle for human flourishing.

According to the Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, the share of disposable personal income spent on food by U.S. consumers in 2025 was 9.7%.

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The DSA Vision: Does Any Human Being Enjoy Living As A Zoo Animal?

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The DSA Vision: Does Any Human Being Enjoy Living As A Zoo Animal?

Here is a fundamental proposition to which I subscribe: The only thing worth being in life is an adult.

By the word “adult” I have something specific in mind. An adult is someone who, at a minimum, either alone or in a family structure, provides for himself or herself. That’s the minimum. Even more worthwhile is being an adult who also, through effort and within a family structure, creates and provides for a family. Still more worthwhile is being an adult who, after fully providing for a family, also assists others who may need help, beginning with extended family, and potentially then reaching to the broader society and to charity.

The alternative to living as an adult is living as a dependent on others or on society. You are relieved of all responsibilities, and somebody else somehow comes up with whatever you may need in life, be it food or housing or health care. Your own life is no longer burdened by the need to provide for yourself and family, and you can live without stress and without need to fulfill obligations.

In other words, this is the life of a zoo animal. Does any human being actually want to live such a life?

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