Happy Wednesday Everyone! Todayâs newsletter: 1,258 wordsâŠ4.7 mins
ð Todayâs Edition: Mamdani's Plan to...Seize Your Property, Colonizing The Moon, Hasan Piker In Hot Soup, Gracie Mansion Protest, New Hamas Chief Dead, Pam Bondi Gets New Role⊠& much more!
ð You might have heard of the Black Plague, but have you heard of the Dancing Plague in 1518? Scroll down to read about it.
ðTHE HIGHLIGHT
One killer insight to stash in your back pocket
Mayor Mamdani at his âBlock by Blockâ rally.
ðïž NYC's New Mayor Has a Plan to...Sieze Your Private Property
New York City's mayor just announced he wants to TAKE your landlord's building and give it to the government.
Mayor Mamdani just unveiled his "Block by Block" plan.
And buried inside this $22 billion scheme is something that should terrify every property owner in America.
ð¥·Here's how the scam works:
1ïžâ£ Step one: The city passes laws that cap rents â so landlords literally cannot raise prices even as their costs explode. Property taxes? Up 16%. Utilities? Up 42%. Insurance? Up 115%. But rents? Frozen.
2ïžâ£Step two: The landlord can't afford repairs. Violations pile up. The building falls into distress.
3ïžâ£Step three: The city swoops in, declares the landlord a "bad landlord" â and TRANSFERS ownership to a nonprofit or community land trust.
ðYou see what just happened? They manufactured the crisis. Then they used the crisis to seize the asset.
ðšRunning the operation: Cea Weaver, Mamdani's housing director and fellow Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member.
She has said on the record that homeownership is "a weapon of white supremacy" and has called for hiring more communists into government.
ð¢ Even Bill Maher â who is no conservative â has gone on his show multiple times to call out Mamdani and Weaver by name.
âïžNone of this is technically illegal â yet. The city is using existing legal mechanisms. Foreclosures. Lien transfers. Court-appointed administrators. The Third Party Transfer program. These have existed for years.
What's new is the scale and the intent. They're ramping up enforcement in an environment they've deliberately made untenable for private ownership.
Who gets the buildings? Community land trusts. Nonprofits. Government-aligned stewards. Not the open market.
ð¡ Why it matters: This isn't a fringe activist's fever dream â it's official policy from the mayor of the largest city in America. New York has always been where American ideas go to get stress-tested. If this survives a legal challenge, every city with a housing crisis and a socialist city council just got a blueprint.
âïžTHE CHESSBOARD
Geopolitics Decoded In 3 Moves
Hasan Piker
ð²Hasan Piker Lands In Hot Soup
Twitch streamer Hasan Piker (âHasanAbiâ) is under federal investigation by Treasuryâs OFAC for his role in a March 2026 âNuestra América Convoyâ delivering aid to Cuba.
The convoy involved a broader network of communist-sympathizer groups, DSA affiliates, and figures linked to CCP-aligned Neville Roy Singham.
Subpoenas seek records on possible Cuba sanctions violations and unregistered foreign agent activity â the same FARA issue that sank Paul Manafort.
A circulated clip shows Piker admitting Cuban government intermediaries âfixed thingsâ for the trip.
After news broke, he told viewers on stream: âTheyâre up my ass⊠Iâm about to be made an example of.â The probe is ongoing; no charges filed yet.
ð¡ Bottom line: He built a career calling America the oppressor and saying Americans deserved 9/11. Now America just sent him a very official letter asking to see his receipts.
ð£ Hamas Keeps Appointing Military Chiefs. Israel Keeps Killing Them.
On the eve of Eid al-Adha, the IDF struck a residential building in Gaza City and killed Mohammed Odeh â the brand-new commander of Hamas's Qassam Brigades. He'd had the job for less than 2 weeks.
The turnover rate: Odeh replaced al-Haddad, killed May 16. Al-Haddad replaced Mohammed Sinwar. Israel is running through Hamas's chain of command like a checklist.
The cost: Odeh's wife, at least one child, and up to 9 civilians were killed in the strike on a crowded market-area building.
ð¡ Bottom line: Israel isn't negotiating the org chart â it's erasing it. The question is whether Hamas can replace leadership faster than it loses it.
ð Thai Cops Wore Sequined Dresses to Bust a Drug Dealer
Five male officers and one female officer from Lopburi province dressed as a glamorous dance troupe â full sequins, makeup, the works â and performed at a street festival to get close to suspect Mekha Fa-wap-wap without spooking him.
The haul: 53 meth pills, 200+ drug packaging bags, and an illegal gambling operation run off his phone.
The aftermath: Officers posted a proud group photo in full drag on Facebook. It immediately went viral.
ð¡ Bottom line: Thailand's police just out-21-Jump-Streeted Hollywood. The sequel writes itself.
ðœTHE EMPIRE FILES
Political Drama From DC To NYC
Rendering of the lunar outpost
ð Weâre Colonizing The Moon
NASA didn't say "outpost." They said "settler outposts." And they handed the $20B contract to Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin â mission launching this fall.
The actual plan: Robots scout the South Pole for water ice through 2029 â then humans rotate in on shifts like it's a lunar construction site.
Permanent settlers by 2032, nuclear power grids, pressurized rovers, and a launchpad for Mars.
â¡This isn't Apollo â land, plant the flag, leave. This is colonization. The Moon is becoming humanity's second address.
ðœ Gracie Mansion Is Becoming A Political War Zone
Hundreds gathered outside Gracie Mansion Monday night â the first major Jewish-led protest at Mamdani's residence since he took office. Jewish, Christian, Hindu, and Muslim community members showed up together.
The grievances: Vetoing a school buffer-zone bill, skipping the Israel Day Parade, and a deliberate softening on antisemitism definitions.
The chants: "Mamdani's got to go" and calls for Governor Hochul to remove him from office entirely.
â¡ NYC politics is splitting into two realities: progressive activist culture vs. public-order backlash. And now the countryâs largest city is stress-testing how far activist politics can go before the coalition starts fracturing in public.
ð€ CODES & POWER
Tech Wars, Crypto Chaos, and AIâs Black Mirror Moments
ð€ Pam Bondi Got Fired as AG...and Landed on Trump's AI Council
Six weeks after getting ousted from the Justice Department, Pam Bondi has a new job: coordinating between the White House and the tech billionaires on Trump's AI advisory panel â Jensen Huang, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison.
The signal: Washington is treating AI less like âtech policyâ and more like Cold War infrastructure â data centers, energy grids, chip supply chains, regulatory warfare against China.
David Sacks called her a "bureaucratic hurdle-clearer." Critics called it something less flattering.
â¡ This news comes just as it was announced Bondi has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
ð° Meta Wants $3.99/Month to...Watch Stories Anonymously
Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp are rolling out paid "Plus" tiers â and the flagship perk is browsing without leaving a footprint. The apps you've used free for 15 years now have a privacy paywall.
The pricing: Instagram Plus and Facebook Plus at $3.99/month, WhatsApp Plus at $2.99 â with custom themes, extended stories, and expanded AI tools.
The real play: Meta is burning billions on AI infrastructure and needs revenue that isn't just ad clicks.
â¡ Zuckerberg spent a decade insisting Facebook would always be free. Technically, it still is â just worse.
ðº FUN FACTS & TRIVIA
The Dancing Plague of 1518
In Strasbourg, hundreds suddenly danced uncontrollably for days or weeks in 1518, with many dying from exhaustion, heart attacks, or strokes. Doctors bizarrely prescribed âmore dancingâ as the cure, worsening the frenzy.
The likely cause was mass psychogenic illness â extreme stress from famine, disease, and superstition triggered a contagious hysteria.