From: Wilson@nowhere.invalid   
      
   New York’s mayor Zohran Mamdani has announced that to give city   
   residents all the cool new free stuff, we all have to make some   
   sacrifices. Major. (His first choice is for New York’s governor to   
   simply raise income taxes even higher; get ’em to 60 percent, why not!)   
   But Kathy Hochul has so far refused. And if income taxes on the wealthy   
   and corporations can’t be raised: “We are forced to raid the rainy day   
   fund, the retiree health benefits trust reserve, and to increase   
   property taxes,” Mayor Mamdani said this week. He’s looking at a 9.5   
   percent property tax hike. See, with all the new government-funded stuff   
   he wants to do, there’s a $5.4 billion budget gap. So I hope your   
   grandma in the home is okay with watery soup.   
      
   Meanwhile, Mamdani is rolling out his new “rental ripoff” hearings, but   
   his administration will ban testimony from anyone renting in public   
   housing. Since the government is a perfect landlord, why would you ever   
   need to complain about it? One other funny thing about the budget: A big   
   chunk of it goes to public schools, which we are always told are “an   
   underfunded, overcrowded public system”; in fact, that’s what The New   
   Yorker called them last week. Like a sort of mantra, we are always told   
   this. No matter that New York spends over $40K a year per student, and   
   that the number of students enrolled dropped by 2.4 percent last year.   
   So technically they’re. . . overfunded and undercrowded. Details! Like   
   your retiree health benefits: They are not important.   
      
   And a new favorite character is emerging among his coterie. It’s Mathis   
   E. Roy Vigne, the champagne socialist, whose name, fit for calligraphy,   
   is a big clue: He spends his days doing communism and his nights   
   throwing fits at airlines for business class treatment, including a very   
   upsetting downgrade to economy. On this I must say: Real recognize real.   
      
   Example: “Service @ @AmericanAir is beyond disgrace. Have a   
   Transatlantic Business Class Ticket, am entitled to Flagship Lounge   
   access @ ORD—where I went after my inbound flight—but am being denied   
   access this time for no admissible reason. Disgusted. Why should I fly   
   American ever again?”   
      
   And: “Earned Flying Blue Silver Status through my travels with   
   @airfrance. Flying TLS-CDG-JFK today, with two complimentary checked   
   bags. Yet, the checking area agent was rude and unhelpful. @AirFranceFR,   
   why do you have to make everything feel like such a pain?”   
      
   And: “Not to make things better, @FlySWISS did not finish its beverage   
   service, leaving som pax [ed. note: “some passengers”] with a dry throat   
   because they were late to start. They also forced us to stow our tray   
   tables without collecting our waste. You only get one chance at a good   
   1st impression.”   
      
   I’m in love. I know Mamdani calls himself a socialist, but it’s not real   
   until the administration is entirely run by people who treat a parched   
   throat like a curb stomp. When all of housing is socialized in Mamdani’s   
   New York, you think Mathis E. Roy Vigne will be in a crappy little   
   shoebox like the rest of us pax, at risk of a potential waste collection   
   delay? No, no, silly comrade. You only get one chance at a good 1st   
   impression.   
      
     Nellie Bowles   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)