Mamdani and his allies are tenant organizers, and their chief tactic is to identify specific villains. This creates an illusion of accountability (as if the city's fiscal challenges can be assigned to some external bad actor rather than the cumulative impact of buck-passing), emotional engagement (find a focus for public anger and resentment that is not you), and polarization (if you don't join in the outpouring of hatred, you are suspect). The trouble is that the villain needs to be a vulnerable target you can cut off from key resources (money, public support) through intimidating public protest, a media campaign, etc. Mamdani has decided not to make Trump the villain, possibly because Trump has cards to play and doesn't seek the approval of Mamdani's base. Hochul can't be the villain, as the mayor is begging Albany for money. He decided to go after Ken Griffin as a stand-in for nonresident owners of expensive investment properties in NYC, but of course Griffin is not obliged to take the abuse. There's a good case that NYC needs Griffin more than Griffin needs NYC. So who's next? Without a villain, it's not clear that the organizer's playbook can work.

I don’t think enough of you realize that a ~10% Dow correction can blow Trump off almost any policy.

One thing that I realized early on when I became president of @TheFIREorg in 2006 is that it's very easy for a nonprofit to make scads of money if it decides to go hard partisan. It is much harder if your goal is to be known as a truly nonpartisan organization that is willing to lose donors if they don't agree with a “no favorites” approach to freedom of speech. it took years & the willingness to walk away from supporters who weren’t as principled as the people we have around us now. I am very proud to have helped create, along with the most amazing team in the business, an organization as enthusiastically principled as FIRE & I hope as our year comes to the end that you will support us, that you will tell your friends to support us & that you'll stay with us because America needs an unwavering defender of freedom of speech, particularly as we head into a year that is bound to be very intense. Because unlike what I've heard from my more partisan friends on the left & and the right, the rules of the road don't matter LESS when everything's on the line. They matter MORE. Please donate thefire.org/donate via @TheFIREorg

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This is Joseph Ruiz. In 2021, the FBI seized his life savings—$57,000—from his safe deposit box in LA. He could no longer afford his medical treatments & he struggled to buy food. The kicker: He wasn't suspected of a crime. There are many other victims in this saga. A thread.

An inflation update: in the past I've focused on a measure that excludes lagging shelter and used cars as well as food and energy. Just to note that it adds to the evidence that inflation has been largely defeated

How does “liberal cities’ inability to maintain basic law and order” explain why more than half the cars stolen in Chicago in 2023 are made by two carmakers with 11% market share? 57% of cars stolen in Cleveland: these two carmakers. 60% in Minn. 41% in Baltimore.

JP Morgan is a fortress

Quote: Former #Gophers coach Glen Mason on @KFAN1003 on what he would say if current U coach PJ Fleck were to call him to ask about whether he should consider USC. Mason’s advice to ANY coach in years 4-6, who has had success there and is contacted for equal/better job: “Go.”