Zohran Mamdani

The Left-Wing’s MAGA Folks

/ Rich Wilkins / Leave a comment

Hamas is bad. Hezbollah is bad. Ayatollah Khomeini and the Islamic Regime in Iran are bad. Maduro is bad. North Korea is bad. Cuba is bad. There’s a lot of bad with China. Russia’s government is outright rotten bad. Osama Bin Laden was bad. January 6th was bad. Nazi Germany and the Holocaust were bad, and real. Ethnic cleansing in former Yugoslavian Republics is and was bad. African militants, both national armies and terroristic groups, seeking to commit atrocities and ethnic cleansing, are bad. Pinochet and Pol Pot were bad. I could go on all day. Bad people and groups are bad people and groups. There is no “but” after any of them.

Of course who is good is a lot more complicated and requires caveats often. The Western World is largely a free and safe place today because the United States sacrificed literally millions of our sons and daughters to the cause of freedom. We also had slavery for our first eight decades, committed the Trail of Tears, and built Japanese Internment Camps. The British and French fought side by side with us in keeping the world from fascism, but their colonial pasts aren’t great. Germany is probably one of the best two or three countries in the world today, and for that matter so is Japan, but we’re eighty years removed from the worst war in the history of man being fought to stop them from raping and killing huge percentages of the Earth’s population. Hell, Stalin’s Soviet Union and even Mao’s forces in Russia fought on the right side of that conflict, before killing tens of millions of their own people. Lincoln and Johnson both held deeply racist views on a number of matters, and did more for the cause of Civil Rights than any President in American history. Good can be a very, very relative term, in a way that bad just can’t be.

There is no world though where whitewashing away the Holocaust and declaring Hamas and Bin Laden as freedom fighters is in any way, however minor, good. October 7th was pure evil, period. So was Pearl Harbor. So was Mao’s Cultural Revolution. The Iranian Revolution was not justified by the removal of Mossadegh, it was just outright evil too. Down is not up. There are red lines. Even if previous Presidents and Administrations didn’t enforce them, Assad was a very bad guy for crossing the red line and killing his people with chemical weapons. Yes, ISIS fighting against him was also bad. Some things are really just unequivocal.

Many of us have criticized MAGA and Republicans for accepting trash people and moral relativism in the era of Trump simply because it’s from people “on their side.” We would be remiss to accept these people on our side while criticizing them. AOC criticized protestors in a Jewish neighborhood of Queens for voicing support for Hamas. So did Mamdani. She was criticized by those on the far left. So was Mamdani. Now look, there’s plenty of reason to say she’s full of shit, and so is he, but I think any morally responsible person at least has to defend them here. Part of why I hate the far left is their inability to say up is up and down is down, so it’s nice to see they’ll do the absolute bitter minimum when forced. Bad is bad.

We all need to realize though that we are housing some folks in our “camp” who will literally side with any crazy terroristic organization or government if they are against the United States. These people are completely unacceptable. Making a joke about the Holocaust and Iranian protestors being killed isn’t a “moderate” or “reasonable” position, it’s absolute cosmic levels of freak politics. Taking the side of a murderous, hard line lunatic regime that is killing it’s own people by the thousand, while denying the Holocaust used to get you relegated to the fringes of American and Western politics, right along side of the moon howling crowd. It still should. These people are rotten to their core.

Bad is still bad. You can question plenty of things about America and our allies while still acknowledging that some people are outright bad who stand against us. Putin’s war in Ukraine is wrong. Hamas needs to be eliminated. The Iranian regime is bad. It is a minimum to understand this, even if you are criticizing Netanyahu and the Israeli government, the conduct of the war in Ukraine, or the ability of the Shah’s son to lead. If you can’t tell the difference between the troubled but civilized and the murderers and zealots, you should be cast out of acceptable democratic politics. The Democratic Party should stop equivocating on whether we want these people around. Any decent party should not.

Collective Political Failure

/ Rich Wilkins / Leave a comment

Donald Trump is the President of the United States and Zohran Mamdani is the Mayor of New York. One, a raging madman that has re-defined conservatism around his cult of personality, hatred towards those he perceives of enemies, and the destruction of both our federal government and the existing world order since World War II. The other, a self-described socialist that won’t say “the Intifada” is bad, wants to open city owned grocery stores, and ran on a platform of giving away a lot of free stuff to city residents that he will need Albany to come in and foot the bill for. If you read my blog regularly, you know that I have no use for either one. In fact, I think the election of both is a sign of a society in decline.

As is true with all things though, Mamdani’s first day was a mixed bag, even if it was almost all bad. He did decide to keep the city’s office that fights antisemitism, even if he weakened it a bit, which is a good thing. He also is showing signs that he is willing to cut through some bureaucratic red tape in the government to help build more housing fast. Other than those two things, his first day in office was a hellscape of terrible. You know it’s bad when the speeches by AOC and Bernie were as much about criticizing Democrats as the Trump Administration, but they were nothing compared to Mamdani’s. One line, in particular, has received almost all of the attention- “We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.” If Mao or Stalin himself had said this, we would have zero shock. The speech was literally a call to return to at least “big government liberalism,” if not an outright socialist battle cry altogether. As Putin critic and former Soviet citizen Gary Kasparov put it on Twitter, “The “warmth of collectivism” is to freeze while those with heated dachas tell you how noble your sacrifice is.” Mamdani, a man born of economic and academic privilege, is what happens when limousine liberalism gets put on steroids and hyper-charged. There is a reason China rejected Mao, the Soviet Union failed, Cuba is a failure, Venezuela is now a living hell, and no one wants to go to North Korea. This kind of rhetoric leads to failure, because the underlying system of socialism has no grounding in practical reality, it cannot be run in a functional way. Mamdani’s solution is to get the city involved in things the city probably can’t do very well, like run a grocery store. His solution to expensive transit is to make it free. His solution to some crimes is to legalize them. What he doesn’t get is that someone has to pay for it all. Politicians in Albany aren’t going to be excited to raise taxes to pay for his programs, and they probably will just refuse to do it for the most part. To the extent he’s even allowed, he may try to pin that bill on the wealthy in New York City. At least some of them will just leave. No city, not even the greatest city, can survive with no taxpayer base.

My guess is Mamdani will mostly fail to deliver, and that’s my hope. If he succeeds, it will have long lasting impacts on the city, and a few will be good, but the net will be bad. How do you get to Mamdani though? You get there through electing a Trump. How do you get a Trump? You get there by a government that the public doesn’t think meets it’s needs. A world where more people live out of debt, work more hours, and get ahead less. In short, it is a collective failure that gets you to Mamdani. Oh, the irony.

Crooksy’s Hired Nerds Will Save Us, Right?

/ Rich Wilkins / 1 Comment

They gave you an underperforming antisemite. They gave you Senator Shrek. Now you should trust that they are ready to deliver you a House Majority. Just check out their puff article.

After successfully propelling Zohran Mamdani to the mayor’s office in New York City, the campaign firm Fight Agency is moving on to its next targets – defeating Pennsylvania Reps. Ryan Mackenzie (R-07) and Rob Bresnahan (R-08).

The six-person firm consists of Rebecca Katz, Tommy McDonald, Julian Mulvey, Morris Katz, Eric Stern, and Lynnette Jackson. Fight Agency’s website reads that it has assisted over 300 winning elections in 40 states and has won over 100 awards, including 2022 Campaign of the Year.

Katz was the lead strategist for Sen. John Fetterman’s winning campaign in 2022, while McDonald was his key admaker. Mulvey was a key member of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) braintrust, and Katz was the firm’s lead on the Mamdani campaign. 

Stern was deputy campaign manager for Fetterman, while Jackson heads operations.

The group’s website says that it is “looking to help American originals” who are “ready to fight the toughest battles in politics.”

“And we’re here to help you with sharp messaging and the next great iconic ad.  So, if you’re looking for something different, you might have just found it.”

So their new iconic original is a pro-gun militant, who hates Kaepernick for supporting BLM (as opposed to telling people to not vote in 2016), and stiffed his mother-in-law. An American original? I mean, you can find deadbeats all over the place right, like maybe Trump Tower? Or is this whatever day Northampton County has hearings for people who stiff their family? I’m unsure. Bob “Crooksy” Brooks is certainly unoriginal though. I’ve see plenty of people who aren’t even honest when it comes to their family.

Yes, these folks got Zohran elected in a gigantic blue city. Good job. Unless they’re going to flat out lie to people and get away with it like they did with John “Shrek” Fetterman, that doesn’t usually work though. Look, Mamdani will be the latest leftist who promised the world and under delivers. John Fetterman somehow went from a Bernie socialist to a Republican before he finished three years in the Senate. These same folks want you to think it’s okay to have a Nazi tattoo, so much so that you should be elected Senator in Maine. Yes, he’s really their guy. These folks brag about electing like 300 socialists, but they probably lost more Presidential primaries with just Bernie Sanders alone than Eugene Debs did in his career. Most Americans don’t want to be Democratic Socialists.

The movement they are selling is simply awful. It’s morally bankrupt. We have seen what their kind of candidates give us. They give us Trump’s National Intelligence Director, Tulsi Gabbard. They give us deadbeat Senator, Bernie Sanders. They give us completely con-artist Senators, like John Fetterman. That’s a road to the future version of MAGA. We don’t need this kind of garbage.

Mamdani Really Didn’t Do That Great

/ Rich Wilkins / 1 Comment

If you listen to the Branch BERNidians, BROhan Zohan Mamdani taught Democrats the way forward. We need more charismatic candidates like him, candidates who promise to defund Israel and give away a lot of free stuff. As I’ve said before, Mamdani isn’t a good candidate and being like him would lead to 2026 losses for Democrats, under the kindest of conditions, outside of dark blue enclaves. But do we even need to look beyond New York City to illustrate that?

It turns out there were other races on the ballot citywide in New York City. Both Democratic candidates essentially did what Sherrill and Spanberger did in other states, bringing all anti-Trump voters together under their umbrella. Mamdani supporters will be quick to point out they had a three way with Andrew Cuomo in it. These races had independent candidates too. These guys ran against a field that didn’t include a vigilante and the former Governor who once had to say “I’m not a pervert, I’m Italian” on live TV to defend himself as he was getting ready to resign. One could argue they beat actual candidates and not cartoon characters.

Then there’s these races- Borough wide races within New York City. Staten Island is a red place, so ignore that one for a moment. The dude that won there literally got caught having two families when he was in Congress and they still made him President of Staten Island. The rest of the city is the rest of the city. None of the Democrats, even somewhat controversial ones like say Alvin Bragg, got less than 70%. All of them did at least 20% better than Mamdani. None of them ran against a disgraced ex-Governor or a vigilante.

Let’s look beyond New York City again though. It’s too fun.

This is what Allegheny County looked like in the Pennsylvania Judicial retention elections. Two years ago they ran a strong leftist candidate for County Executive and she barely won. Without that argument this time, Allegheny looked like old Allegheny.

This is my favorite map, because it was put out by Republicans as some sort of evidence that Mikie Sherrill stole the election. I shit you not. I also love this because the terminally online leftists spent months saying Sherrill was a terrible candidate. You know what, I didn’t think she was great as a candidate either (she’ll be a very good governor), but for totally different reasons than they had. Sherrill moved the entire state and never had to answer a question about “globalizing the intifada” one time. People seem to like it when you’re not an obnoxious child.

Basically, Mamdani was a good enough candidate for New York City. He was not a blueprint for the nation, he was not some force of nature. He was just a guy. He beat two strange birds in a very Democratic place. About 30% of people who should have been his voters said “no thanks.” That’s the lesson you should be taking from him.

Kathy Hochul is Poor at Politics

/ Rich Wilkins / Leave a comment

You cannot negotiate with a hostage taker. Zohran Mamdani is that proverbial hostage taker here. This man supported uncommitted over Kamala Harris in last year’s Presidential campaign. He literally said Governor Hochul “justified genocide” for asserting that nations are allowed to respond to being attacked with force. He’s done nothing in Albany as a legislator. He basically beat an extremely flawed candidate in a June primary for local office, and now is demanding that Democrats support him because he has the nomination. A smart Democratic Party would tell him “no thanks.”

Kathy Hochul is not that smart Democratic Party I’m talking about though, apparently.

Ms. Hochul said in her essay that she had been talking to Mr. Mamdani for months and that they had some disagreements.

“But in our conversations, I heard a leader who shares my commitment to a New York where children can grow up safe in their neighborhoods and where opportunity is within reach for every family,” she wrote. “I heard a leader who is focused on making New York City affordable — a goal I enthusiastically support.”

Mr. Mamdani thanked Ms. Hochul for her support and said she had “made affordability the centerpiece of her work.”

“There’s so much work left to do, and our movement is only growing stronger,” he said.

Ms. Hochul and Mr. Mamdani are both focused on addressing the affordability crisis in the state and the city and could each benefit from their new alliance. Ms. Hochul is up for re-election next year, and she is facing a primary challenge from her lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado.

If Mr. Mamdani is elected, he could help protect her left flank, but also prove a liability in the general election, where she could face Representative Elise Stefanik, a Republican and a strong supporter of President Trump.

See, here’s the thing about this- Hochul is going to basically gain nothing. Even if Mamdani is elected with a majority, his endorsing Hochul won’t appease the kind of people who think she is a “genocider” in the Democratic Primary for Governor. Then in the general election, his positions on “defunding the police” and “free stuff” will be painted on her. Mandani will be a major liability on Long Island, in Outer Borough Queens, and in the Hudson Valley. She already will struggle upstate.

Both of these two will probably win, because it’s New York. In Hochul, Democrats will have a major state Governor who underperforms in her state though, and she will continue to be used against other Democrats (as she was in 2022). Would Hochul benefit from endorsing Cuomo, Adams, or Sliwa? No, all of them are flawed enough that it’s not worth the headache. Endorsing Mamdani isn’t any better though. Hochul, and really any major Democrat, should simply stay out of this race. New York City is unique, and their mayoral race is unique. It tells us nothing about nothing. Kathy Hochul created problems she didn’t need here.