These bills would sink the titanic...
Let’s Widen Our Lens 💡
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Tax Them People, STAT!
Governor Hochul is expanding the state budget to $262.7 billion and increasing aid across New York as Mayor Mamdani is staring down what the city comptroller calls the largest budget gap since the Great Recession. The state is sending $1.5 billion to New York City over the next two years, with hundreds of millions covering costs Albany once paid and now expects the city to shoulder. Additional funds are being directed to municipalities statewide, with Buffalo receiving a sizable boost as it manages its own structural deficit.
Mamdani says the city’s projected shortfall once reached $12 billion and now sits closer to $5.5 billion across the current and upcoming fiscal years. He has argued that without new revenue he will be forced to raise property taxes by 9.5 percent. Hochul has rejected both a property tax hike and higher income taxes on top earners, warning that increasing taxes could drive residents out of the state. I wonder what residents she’s concerned with saving as negating both options only worsens the issue for all residents. Republicans argue the city has a spending problem. Mamdani and Comptroller Mark Levine on the other hand blame prior budget practices that relied on short term fixes while undercounting predictable costs like overtime and shelter expenses. Predictable
Regardless of the cause (as the main pitfall of a binary system is the useless back and-forth), the debt is massive and it needs to be paid off if the future of the the city is going to be worth anything. Mamdani's rehabilitation plan thus presents two options: either tax corporations and those that make over $1 mil by an increased 2% to assist in covering the deficit or raise property tax by 9.5%. And since he’s spoken on his intentions of keeping native New Yorkers from being pushed out and forced to abandon their own neighborhoods, it’s clear that kicking up property tax would work directly against that interest. The choice is clear but as the story has always gone, those that have the most will fight against necessary taxation, complaining about how inconceivable it would be to take their hard-earned money from them for the greater good. Sad, but the byproduct of the historical ease of White-centered wealth acquisition.
Wealth is the final boss of social stratification, and weak people hold tight to tiered social systems. They need external standards of value to give their life meaning and thus increasing taxation on their end would slowly nullify that totem pole they cling to so tightly. For a majority of those that have exorbitantly more, the idea of losing personal luxuries to save the lives others is never entertained. Which is why they shouldn't even have a say in the matter. If elected officials can't put spoilt brats on ice then we as a society should implore one another to deal with greed that directly affects our communities like the parasitic infection that it is. That is how you name someone that takes from your pantry without any plans for replenishment. For if the harmless, impoverished man is treated like an enemy of the state, then how much worse do you think an exploitative tycoon should be punished for theft.
Food for action.
Monarchs are but men.
The last time a senior royal was arrested was in the 1640s during the fall of Charles I, an event that ended with a trial and execution. Now, nearly four centuries later, former Prince Andrew has been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office over allegations that he funneled government trade information to Jeffrey Epstein.
After an 11 hour detention on February 20, 2026, he was released under investigation following new revelations tied to the Epstein scandal, meaning no formal charges have been filed and the case remains wide open. The police reportedly focused entirely on whether Andrew passed along confidential trade secrets while serving as the U.K. envoy, rather than centering on the longstanding allegations of sexual abuse connected to Epstein’s trafficking network.
Speaking of the allegations, it’s important to note that these weren’t blind items; there were actual women like the deceased Virginia Giuffre who alleged that Prince Andrew sexually assaulted and trafficked her when she was just 17, providing detailed accounts to media outlets about the encounters occurring in London and at Epstein's properties in the early 2000s. Andrew consistently denied all allegations but later settled a 2022 US lawsuit with her for an undisclosed sum. The tragedy deepened on March 30 when Giuffre shared a photo on her Instagram page showing her bruised and bloodied after a car crash outside her home in Australia. “They’ve given me four days to live,” she wrote of her prognosis. “I’m ready to go.” Three weeks later, on April 25, Virginia took her own life, alone on a ranch in remote scrubland north of Perth, aged 41.
An extremely sad consequence of a system that makes it so hard for victims of sexual violence to find justice. And that's why such an arrest is so important, it's like relief that some balance exists in the world. that bad people won’t always get away scot-free with bad things.
For years Andrew was heavily shielded by his title and royal tradition, and while he was quietly relieved of official duties and public statements were issued, none of those PR moves ever carried the harsh reality of physical detention. Even if the police questioning focused on government disclosures rather than the alleged pedophilic abuse, the act of taking him into custody sends a resounding warning to anyone who believes their wealth and power make them untouchable. No one is ever as covert as they think and all misdeeds are bound to be brought to judgement. It’s just the way of the cycle. But, I believe justice is a human responsibility, not a divine one. Meaning we as people, with every resources we have to determine our governing bodies are accountable for enforcing the world we need.
News from Nuclear Coffee Chats
The Trump administration has given Iran ten days to reach a nuclear agreement and is moving military power into place while that soft clock runs down. Speaking at the first meeting of his so called Board of Peace, the president said we will know within a week and a half whether a deal is happening. He repeated that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and warned that if a meaningful agreement is not reached, consequences will follow.
In the same breath, the Pentagon has positioned the air and naval assets it would need to carry out a strike within days, according to multiple outlets. The USS Abraham Lincoln is in the Arabian Sea and the USS Gerald R. Ford is heading toward the Mediterranean to join destroyers and fighter squadrons already in range. Military analysts say that degree of deployment could sustain hundreds of bombing missions a day. A similar deadline preceded the twelve day war last summer, when stealth bombers hit Iran’s Fordow facility after potential agreements fell through.
Some analysts in Tehran warn that the scale of the buildup seems to be indicative of an attack set to launch regardless of the consensus. Mohammad Soltaninejad said publicly that if negotiations fail or Washington even shifts its position again, war is possible. Jalal Sadatian, a former ambassador to the United Kingdom, argued that regional states have little appetite for open conflict given the risk that U.S. bases could be targeted, and said the balance still leans toward negotiation even as threats intensify.
Following scattered diplomatic discussions, Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi expressed optimism and stated a “new window has opened” for reaching some sort of agreement. Amidst all of this, the rial continues to sink in value, reaching new lows with rates as jarring as 1.63 Million to the dollar (in a single day). Eco Iran described diplomacy operating under the shadow of military movements; Nour News, which is close to senior security officials, floated the possibility of a limited strike meant to demonstrate force without triggering full scale war and warned that the situation stands at the very edge of a cliff.
Iran has answered with its own show of force, conducting exercises in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman and issuing notice of a missile test in the south. One U.S. affairs analyst in Tehran called a deal a miracle and questioned whether any agreement would hold even if it were reached. Across the region governments, markets, and ordinary people are monitoring the news and the carriers at sea, already aware of how quickly these negotiations can give way to destruction. For now, we watch and wait
Written & Designed by Ife Giwa
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