Why Not Raise New York City’s Minimum Wage to $100?

Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger

“According to an article on the leftist website commondreams.org, New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, a self-labeled socialist, is being applauded for his defense of a $30 minimum wage. The Big Apple’s minimum wage is currently at $16.50. What? How in the world can anyone be applauding someone who wants a minimum wage of only $30 per hour? Why isn’t Mamdani instead proposing a minimum wage of $100 per hour? As a member of the New York State Assembly, he himself receives $142,000 year. Why does he settle for $30 for workers?” (10/23/25)

https://www.fff.org/2025/10/23/why-not-raise-new-york-citys-minimum-wage-to-100/

The engines of state capitalism, part 3

Source: The Peaceful Revolutionist
by David S D’Amato

“Revisiting founding-era figures like Alexander Hamilton makes it clear that today’s language around the relationship between the state and capital is deeply confused to the point of being backwards. In the early U.S., state power and capital accumulation were co-constitutive and mutually-dependent, never opposed as phenomena in theory or practice. Our current deeply problematic language, which often pretends that the state reins in big business, is among the most laughable and ahistorical features of our discourse. During the early republic, the champions of big business were those of big government and vice versa, and federal power was shored up very explicitly to favor commercial elites.” (10/22/25)

https://dsdamato.substack.com/p/the-engines-of-state-capitalism-part-7c2

Democrats change their protest brand — but stick with the same substance

Source: Semafor
by David Weigel

“Democratic rhetoric has grown more conservative, with more appeals to tradition, than it was during Trump’s first term. (It’s also clear that this rebranding is getting under some Republicans’ skin, 100 hours after the Saturday rallies. If President Donald Trump ‘was a king,’ his eldest son quipped to Fox News, he ‘probably would just reopen the government.’) But Democrats’ goals, as elucidated at No Kings rallies, have not changed.” (10/22/25)

https://www.semafor.com/article/10/22/2025/democrats-change-their-protest-brand-but-stick-with-the-same-substance

North Korea: Regime claims “cutting-edge” hypersonic missile test ahead of APEC summit

Source: United Press International

“North Korea successfully tested a ‘new cutting-edge weapons system’ involving hypersonic missiles, state-run media reported Thursday, amid heightened regional tensions ahead of the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea. Two hypersonic projectiles were launched in a northeast direction from the Pyongyang area and hit targets on a plateau of Kwesang Peak in Orang County, North Kamgyong Province, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.” (10/23/25)

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2025/10/23/North-Korea-hypersonic-missile-test-new-weapons-system-APEC-summit/5851761205198/

GDP as ideological scam, part 6

Source: The Peaceful Revolutionist
by David S D’Amato

“The mid-century English anarchist Herbert Read suggested a very different way of thinking about progress: ‘What is our measure of progress? And again I answer that it is only to the degree that the slave is emancipated and the personality differentiated that we can speak of progress.’ Read’s model, progress as differentiation, stands as a direct challenge to GDP’s idea of progress, which collapses all difference in its reduction of every social and economic question to ‘did the number increase?'” (10/23/25)

https://dsdamato.substack.com/p/gdp-as-ideological-scam-part-6

High-profile comedians paid handsomely to not offend Saudi royals at Riyadh comedy fest

Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Sarah McLaughlin

“Comedy’s greatest asset is its ability to use just laughter to take the powerful down a peg. But what took place in Saudi Arabia earlier this month wasn’t so funny. Over 50 well-known comedians including Bill Burr, Kevin Hart, and Dave Chappelle all performed in recent weeks at the Riyadh Comedy Festival, despite criticism from some fellow comics who were also invited — and offered large sums to perform — but said no. One of those comedians, Atsuko Okatsuka, shared a reason why she chose to reject the offer: It came with very restrictive strings attached. … Two comedians were dropped from the lineup after making comments about how they were still willing to accept the money despite the country’s extensive human rights violations, because in doing so they acknowledged said violations. That’s a no-no.” (10/22/25)

https://www.thefire.org/news/blogs/free-speech-dispatch/high-profile-comedians-paid-handsomely-not-offend-saudi-royals

New census data: A true picture of America’s housing stock

Source: Niskanen Center
by Alex Armlovich

“For decades, policymakers, researchers, and the public have struggled to answer what seems a simple question: How many homes are cities permitting? In Los Angeles, for example, the federal building permit survey suggests that the state has issued around 15,000 housing permits annually in recent years. But California’s own Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) tells a different story: closer to 20,000. This 30 percent gap isn’t merely a statistical quirk; it represents thousands of permits that don’t appear in our national housing data.” (10/23/25)

https://www.niskanencenter.org/new-census-data-a-true-picture-of-americas-housing-stock