The F-Bombs About the Bombs, Can Iran Still Build Nukes? NYC's Mayoral Election is Working Class vs. Elite "Luxury Beliefs," ICE Arrests Islamic Revolutionary Guard Members (The Five for 06/24/25)
Hey, welcome to The Five, a publication about the stories that matter, but don’t always make the front page.
There’s certainly a lot of news…so let’s dive in.
[one]
Writer Rob Henderson (who I’m friendly with/have done a podcast episode with) coined the term “Luxury Beliefs” more than a decade ago. Here’s a summary.
Luxury beliefs are ideas or opinions held primarily by privileged or affluent groups that signal status, sophistication, or moral superiority but often have little practical cost to the holder while potentially imposing costs on others, particularly less privileged groups. These beliefs are typically abstract, trendy, or socially fashionable and may not align with the practical realities faced by those outside the elite. The term, coined by Rob Henderson, suggests they function as a modern equivalent of luxury goods—displayed to enhance social standing rather than address tangible problems.
Examples include advocating for policies or ideologies that sound virtuous but may negatively impact lower socioeconomic groups without directly affecting the advocate, like promoting defunding the police while living in safe, gated communities.
From The Times:
It’s in this polarised environment that the mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has gained traction among the city’s richest voters. At only 33, Mamdani is one of the youngest people ever to run for mayor of America’s largest city. Mamdani, a self-proclaimed nepo baby who has spent four years as an Albany assemblyman and is described by The New York Times as a “a TikTok savant”, has virtually no experience for the job, but polls show the self-described socialist closing in on the former New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s lead. Whoever wins the Democratic primary Tuesday will be the victor in the general mayoral election come November, as there are no viable Republican candidates in play.
And yet, what’s really worrying about this candidate is that he’s a poster child for luxury beliefs.
“Luxury beliefs” — a term I coined years ago — means opinions that confer status on the upper class at little to no cost for them, while inflicting serious cost on the lower classes. And the very people who back Mamdani are the ones who most resemble him: affluent, overeducated, and eager to prove their virtue at someone else’s expense.
As is often true of those who embrace luxury beliefs, Mamdani purports to care most about the working class. He says he wants free buses, government-run grocery stores, and a freeze on rent increases.
But his platform would hurt the working classes a lot more than it would help them.
Take, for example, Mamdani’s plan to freeze rents. Without raising rents, many landlords cannot afford to maintain their buildings, which leads to apartments becoming rundown or empty. This is one reason why, ironically, cities with rent control policies have the lowest levels of affordable housing — a policy that hurts working-class families most.
Then there’s Mamdani’s push for free public buses, a plan that would cost $630 million a year. An analysis by the Transportation Research Board found that “some public transit systems that have experimented with or implemented a fare-free policy have been overwhelmed … by the presence of disruptive passengers, including loud teenagers and vagrants.” This, too, would make life harder for low-income New Yorkers who depend on public transit every DAY.
Mamdani also has the odd habit of deploying three distinctively different accents. It’s not uncommon for immigrants to speak one way to people close to them, another way when addressing the public (which is fine—part of my own family are refugees—so I grew up with it).
But…how does one acquire THREE accents exactly?
So far, Mamdani is not doing well with the “working class” voters he claims he wants to help…we’ll see how this shakes out.
This is a local election that could be a bellwether for national politics, so the results may be worth checking tonight…
[two]
And to understand enough about the Constitution to the extent that I'm the one that's supposed to make a f*cking decision.
Well, to get technical:
Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution grants Congress the power “to declare War,” suggesting that major military actions, such as initiating a war, require congressional authorization. This supports Crockett’s implication that she, as a member of Congress, has a role in such decisions.
However, Article II, Section 2 designates the President as the “Commander in Chief” of the armed forces, giving the executive branch significant authority to direct military operations, especially in response to immediate threats or emergencies. Presidents have historically initiated military actions (e.g., airstrikes) without formal declarations of war, often relying on statutory authorizations like the War Powers Resolution of 1973 or broad post-9/11 Authorizations for Use of Military Force (AUMFs).
The War Powers Resolution requires the President to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing armed forces to hostilities and limits such actions to 60 days (plus a 30-day withdrawal period) without congressional approval. This implies Congress has a role in sustaining or authorizing prolonged military actions but not necessarily in immediate decisions like airstrikes.
Crockett isn’t totally wrong here…but her claim that “she’s the one who makes the f*cking decision,” is mathematically way off. As a single member of congress, she holds 1/535th of the war powers…
[three]
Western military sources say it’s too early to fully assess the damage wrought by the US and Israeli strikes, although satellite images analyzed by CNN, reveal extensive destruction at the key nuclear installations of Isfahan, Natanz and Fordow.
Iran’s controversial uranium enrichment program, which uses sensitive centrifuges often installed deep underground in fortified bunkers, is likely to have been rendered inoperable or damaged, if not entirely destroyed.
Trump insists Iran will “never” be able to rebuild its nuclear program.
“That place is under rock, that place is demolished,” he told reporters in Washington on Tuesday before heading to the NATO summit in The Hague.
But if there is political will, Iran may have the capacity and the means to do revive its program, especially given that its technical know-how is likely to have survived, despite the targeting by Israel of multiple Iranian nuclear scientists.
Moreover, officials at the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, confirm they are still uncertain of the whereabouts of the nuclear material Iran has already manufactured, including some 880 pounds of uranium-235 enriched to 60% purity, which is dangerously close to weapons-grade levels.
A top Iranian nuclear official, Mohammad Eslami, who is the head of the country’s atomic energy organization, insisted that Iran “planned ahead of time” to ensure there would be “no interruption to our nuclear program.”
Meanwhile, Iranian state media reported that nuclear sites were “evacuated” ahead of the US strikes, raising concerns that some or all of the enriched nuclear material has been preserved, possibly at a secret facility unknown to inspectors.
However, even if Iran was able to safely hide its enriched uranium, turning this into weapons-grade material “is not going to be a fast process,” since the US and Israeli bombing campaign has “done serious damage to Iran’s capability to build a nuclear weapon,” said David Albright, a former UN nuclear weapons inspector who is now the president of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) think tank. He assessed that it would take Iran “a good year or two” to build a nuclear weapon.
[four]
A social worker has been arrested for one of the most vile crimes I’ve ever heard of.
A depraved female Long Island therapist has confessed to sharing horrific videos and photos of baby rape online — where she also got a sick kick out of pretending to be a dad who raped his own kids.
Renee Hoberman, a 36-year-old licensed social worker from Plainview, pleaded guilty in federal court in Islip on Wednesday to distributing child porn videos on the social media app Kik, including the rape of a baby less than 1 year old, federal prosecutors said.
She told investigators that she got off on the stomach-churning content, which she shared in 2024 while she was working in Melville as a therapist with children 17 and under.
“The defendant … admitted to distributing extremely vile and unthinkable videos depicting the horrific sexual abuse of babies. The videos the defendant distributed and sought for her own perverse pleasure showed the most innocent members of our society being restrained and violently raped,” stated US Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr.
Hoberman only faces 10-12 years in prison if convicted. I have no idea why she isn’t facing life.
[five]
And finally, ICE has arrested a possible Iranian terrorist.
Federal immigration officials have arrested 11 Iranian nationals since Sunday, including a former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps member with “admitted connections to Hezbollah” and an individual on the U.S. terrorist watchlist.
The operations, which occurred amid heightened tensions following U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, spanned eight states and nine cities, with all 11 Iranians accused of crimes exceeding civil immigration violations, according to CBS News. The arrests come as security experts warn that Iran’s proxy network, which includes Hezbollah and other terrorist groups, has established connections within the United States that could be activated.
Federal agents discovered an Islamic Republic of Iran Army identification card on Ribvar Karmi when he was apprehended in Alabama. He served as an Iranian Army sniper from 2018 to 2021 and entered the U.S. in October 2024 on a K-1 visa for migrants engaged to American citizens. Karmi is set to remain in ICE custody until removal proceedings begin.
Mehran Makari Sahel, arrested in Minnesota, is a former member of the Iranian military’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and had “admitted connections to Hezbollah,” according to ICE.
Another arrestee, Yousef Mehridehno, had been living illegally in America for nearly eight years after lying on a visa application. He was apprehended on Sunday in Mississippi, four months after being added to the U.S. terrorist watchlist.
Until the next one,
-sth