Guillotine Needed: Billionaire Speaks Out! What Do Top ‘Livable’ U.S. Cities Have in Common? Columnist: Woke Not Dead. When Your Nazi SS Tattoo Is the Least of Your Worries. And More

Well, finally—a billionaire talks back.

Erect the guillotine! Amazon founder Jeff Bezos spoke truth to power. Bezos defended billionaires and discussed taxes, AI, and the Trump presidency in a wide-ranging CNBC interview.

The New York Post deemed Bezos’ remarks significant enough to give him the cover this morning. Mediate said it was a “wild” interview in which Bezos “fawned” over President Trump. As your mother always told you, consider the source.

Bezos’ words emblazoned on the NY Post cover beg to be quoted:

“If we ran Amazon the way NYC runs their school system, packages would take 6 weeks to arrive, we would charge you a $100 delivery fee, and the packages would have the wrong item  in them.”

Not only did Bezos torch the $43 billion Mayor Zohran Mamdani poured into New York’s mismanaged school system, but he called for zero income taxes on the bottom half of earners—while jabbing tax-the-rich pols. “Caution: May Cause Billionaires” is a National Review headline. Yes, rich people build things that are beneficial to society,

In other commentary on New York’s socialist boy wonder, City Journal reports that Mamdani doesn’t grasp what gig workers want and thus might squelch their opportunity—which they do want. Meanwhile, Seattle’s new socialist Mayor Katie Wilson admits (and here) it’s not a good idea to diss the town’s most iconic business (called “learning on the job” by the New York Times). The Wall Street Journal’s James Freeman comments:

They say that acknowledging you have a problem is the first step on the long road to recovery. Is Seattle’s socialist Mayor Katie Wilson ready to reckon with the reasons why some of the city’s greatest entrepreneurs don’t live there anymore?

Meanwhile, a new “quality of life” report on U.S. cities reveals something the top-ranked cities have in common: 

Nine of the 10 best American cities in which to live are located in GOP-led states with mayors that lean into conservative values like law and order and “more accountable” government spending, according to a new report.

Quality of life, affordability, a strong job market and overall desirability were taken into account when ranking the best places in the US to settle down.

The top-notch cities were revealed by US News & World Report this week and only one landed in a blue state — Rochester Hills, Michigan, which was ranked the 7th best spot.

An editorial in the Wall Street Journal says that President Trump has reached a “crossroads” with the Iran war and outlines various options. Douglas MacKinnon identifies a “terrifying aspect” of the Iran war that most of us probably have not considered: it concerns Cuba, 90 miles from our shores. As you probably know, Raúl Castro has been indicted by the U.S. in what is being called “a historic day for Florida.” Will Raul be the next Maduro?

Ms. Must thinks of Ruy Teixeira, formerly of the late and lamented Liberal Patriot, as the Democratic Cassandra, always trying to save his party by delivering sobering news. Now, writing at The Free Press, he has sobering news for Republicans: “Trump Is Making the Same Mistake That Doomed Biden.” The subtitle: “He insists that the economy is fine while angry Americans plead for relief.”

Ms. Must might point to the stock market, an indicator of a sound economy. Meanwhile, WSJ political columnist Karl Rove says that if the GOP is not to lose the House, and possibly the Senate, President Trump must be more “restrained,” an idea that would flabbergast the Fox commentators Ms. Must slavishly watches. President Trump’s $1.7 billion “anti-weaponization” fund is not universally popular. Applicant Michael Caputo recalls that his family “lost everything” because of weaponization, while the Washington Examiner contends that “Trump’s slush fund is no better than Obama’s.”

Speaking of the midterms, how about that Graham Platner? And you, poor innocent, thought his Nazi SS tattoo was going to be his worst problem. Nope: “Top Dem lawmakers duck questions when pressed on Platner’s Reddit scandal“:

Top Democratic leaders refused to answer whether Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s newly uncovered vulgar posts have become a liability for Democrats ahead of the midterm elections.

“I haven’t seen no posts,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told Fox News Digital when asked whether Platner had become a liability to the Democratic Party.

Newly surfaced Reddit posts tied to Platner — from an archive of roughly 2,000 salacious takes — include graphic sexual comments about masturbating in portable toilets and praising explicit graffiti depicting genitalia.

In another post, he mocked a Purple Heart U.S. soldier that was nearly killed in combat, posting “dumb motherf—–  didn’t deserve to live.”

Progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., declined to comment on whether she would rescind her backing of Platner after publicly endorsing him in the Maine Democratic primary for Senate against Gov. Janet Mills, who pulled out of the race last month after falling behind in the polls.

Warren’s endorsement came after Platner had already been scrutinized for some of his other controversial Reddit posts — including comments praising Hamas’ tactics, telling rape victims to take accountability and asking why Black people don’t tip. This was also after Platner’s chest tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol circulated the internet, as well as his participation on the subreddit “r/SocialistRA,” where he described himself as a communist.

Platner’s opponent is liberal Republican Susan Collins, the longtime incumbent who has not missed a roll-call vote in her entire career and has no tattoos. Collins was the deciding vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Meanwhile, an editorial in the Wall Street Journal says that President Trump has “made Chuck Schumer’s day” by endorsing Ken Paxton for the Senate in Texas.

Bad News: “‘Woke’ Isn’t Dead, or Even Resting.” That’s the discouraging headline on Matthew Continetti’s Wall Street Journal column:

Mr. Trump’s antiwoke campaign changed policy. But no policy can reach wokeism’s core: the binary of oppressor and oppressed that supplies adherents with moral fervor—directed these days at MAGA and Israel with religious intensity. Mr. Trump’s very presence on the national stage drives Democrats ever farther to the left. The share of Democrats who say they are liberal or very liberal is at a record high. Since 2016, Democrats have viewed socialism more positively than capitalism. Earlier this year, the Pew Research Center asked Democrats to describe what made them proud of America. Among the answers the respondents volunteered: “Nothing.”

Climate change alarmism at least took a hit when the perfidious United Nations admitted that we might not all die on a burning (or freezing) planet. But climate alarmism was always a fashion statement rather than a cause. Cue up a new fashion statement: “The Panic Industry’s New Target” is the headline of a Barton Swaim column. “A generation coached to fear climate change is now fretting over AI and data centers,” Swaim contends. Too bad Germany committed industrial suicide over climate alarmism, isn’t it?

No More Philosopher-Kings! Jason Riley’s column asks what the Founders would have made of Sam Altman and Elon Musk. “America’s Founders and Adam Smith knew better than to entrust the future to philosopher-kings,” Riley replies to his own question.

Where are all the babies? Louise Perry writes in the WSJ that falling birthrates are a mystery and that the answer will not fit neatly into any mainstream political ideology. Good place to begin on this mystery: P. D. James’ prophetic, dystopian novel, “The Children of Men.”