Source: The Daily Economy
by Adam A Millsap
“Private investment can deliver new rentals at scale, but few will want to build if NYC makes it impossible to charge market rates or remove delinquent tenants.” (02/23/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/new-york-cant-afford-to-sideline-private-developers/
Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders
‘Thinking about a great old city, yesterday and today, with Western Civilization in decline.” (02/23/26)
Source: The Pamphleteer
by Davis Hunt
“The mayor’s Winter Storm Response Commission, chaired by former Tennessee governor Phil Bredesen, convened this morning for its first meeting. The commission is set to deliver its final report on the storm response in August. During the inaugural meeting, former TVA board member and Republican speaker of the House, Beth Harwell, indicated that members are still uncertain about their mission. ‘Are the recommendations going to the mayor, the Council, or the [NES] Board?’ asked Harwell. ‘And I’m a little confused as to really our overall objective, and so maybe the staff can answer that at some point.’ Throughout the proceedings, Chair Bredesen emphasized that he wants to avoid a ‘finger pointing’ exercise. Instead, members focused on procedure and constructive goals. During presentations, OEM Director Chief William Swann said that the department is independently implementing after-action changes.” (02/23/26)
https://pamphleteer.co/newsletter/accomplish-nothing-form-a-committee/
Source: Quillette
by Nigel Biggar
“Either universities appoint and promote professors who display and disseminate intellectual virtues, or they reward those who exemplify and cultivate intellectual vices.” (02/23/26)
https://quillette.com/2026/02/23/nine-intellectual-virtues-new-dark-age-nigel-biggar/
Source: The Bulwark
by Joshua Tait
“Ed Crane used to say, as one of his longtime colleagues recollected a couple of years ago, ‘that the thing he did for libertarianism was put libertarians in suits and ties.’ The burly institution builder was not a household name, but he made the modern libertarian movement into what it is today, dragging weirdos and dreamers to the halls of power. A driven activist and domineering organizer once described by P.J. O’Rourke as having a ‘sequoia spine,’ he built both the modern Libertarian Party and the preeminent libertarian think tank in the United States, the Cato Institute.” (02/23/26)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/legacy-of-a-libertarian-leader-ed-crane-cato-institute
Source: CounterPunch
by John LaForge
“The president and secretary of defense have failed in their effort to see to the execution of six members of Congress after the lawmakers had the nerve to urge members of the U.S. military to refuse illegal orders, in other words, to obey the law. … The gruesome irony of Mr. Trump’s outburst, ‘they should be hanged,’ is that it’s been directed at war criminals. After WWII, Nazi commanders were hanged for following illegal orders.” (02/23/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/02/23/illegal-orders-and-the-criminals-who-give-them-2/
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Martin Di Caro
“After four years of nearly ceaseless combat, Russia has not conquered all of the Donbas. Minuscule territorial gains have come at such a cost that losses now exceed recruitment. Neither side has achieved a military breakthrough, and neither appears on the brink of military or political collapse. Moreover, important questions that emerged in the early months of this endless war of attrition remain difficult to answer. Thus, the two sides aren’t mired only at the front lines in eastern Ukraine. There’s been little substantial movement around the obstacles to a durable peace. I asked several experts to comment on how Russia’s autocrat defines victory — what are Putin’s aims?” (02/23/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/russia-ukraine-war-anniversary/
Source: Antiwar.com
by David Stockman
“When it comes to the dangerous misgovernance of our tottering American Republic, there is no more deadly combination imaginable than: *The sweeping unchecked powers of the imperial presidency. * A $1 trillion per year war machine which is organized mainly for conduct of wars of invasion and occupation and the propagation of Empire and which stands at the unilateral beck and call of the POTUS. *An Oval Office occupied by a blustering Caesarean bully sporting an undersized brain enveloped in a gargantuan ego. That gets us to the stupidest thing that Washington has done since LBJ’s idiotic escalation of the war on Vietnam. We are referring, of course, to Donald Trump’s impending military attack on Iran when there is not a scintilla of justification for it based on the homeland security of America.” (02/23/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/david_stockman/2026/02/22/iran-bunker-busters-and-empire-first
Source: Libertarian Institute
by William Anderson
“While communist systems elsewhere fell like dominoes, beginning in the late 1980s, Cuba stubbornly kept its state-dominated economy, even as the standard of living deteriorated after Russia failed to continue subsidizing Cuba after the USSR disappeared into political history. Because of aggressive U.S. policies, Cuba’s political leaders — beginning with Castro — were able to appeal to Cuban patriotism and keep the communist system in place. Although U.S. government pressure has played a role in Cuba’s stubbornness of holding onto a failed system, American supporters of the revolution have also spread falsehoods about what they believe has been the superiority of communism over capitalism, especially in the areas of literacy and healthcare. Indeed, left-wing Americans have been supplying propaganda about Cuba since the late 1960s.” (02/23/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/u-s-actions-toward-cuba-are-criminal
Source: The American Prospect
by Harold Meyerson
“They were about his nostalgia, his ego, his bigotry, and his greed.” (02/23/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/02/23/trump-tariffs-trade-policy-supreme-court/