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JCfromNC's avatar

Oliver Willis had a really good article today that echoed some things I've seen from A.R. Moxon -- namely, that for too long we've let the Right frame what's possible and that's kept us from making any real progress while letting them slowly push things rightward. Mamdani is basically showing everyone what an actual progressive agenda could be like.

https://www.oliverexplains.com/p/mamdani-and-the-left-are-moving-the

"Mamdani And The Left Are Moving The Window – Good"

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a. diderot's avatar

I started talking with my son, who is studying climate science at Hunter College, about the hysteria about the 2% tax. and it started making me really angry. I am 1099 and pay, I think 15% on any profit. Outside of my initial equipment investment, my expenses are fairly light. And here these people are bitching and moaning about a tax on their millions, a rather small tax. Then we got to talking about all of the awful things that have been done in the name of capitalism. He is young so I had to make it clear that we really don't have any communist governments any more, maybe Cuba?

Anyway, by the end I was deeply irritated by all these people who are so afraid of the "communist muslim." Honestly a little democratic socialism wouldn't hurt anybody, it might even make the greedy Smaug creatures happy when the people buy more stuff. Stupid narrow-minded, miss the forest for the trees morons, uuurrrgggh. Sorry, it's humid in nyc

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Daniel O'Riordan's avatar

Stephen Robinson observed that Gillibrand's criticisms of Mamdani sound like a 1950's HOA president talking about property values if those people are allowed to move in.

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Marla's avatar

Considering how she went after Al Franken for taking part in a staged photograph on a comedy tour prior to being in the Senate and maneuvered him out of the Senate; that she endorsed a notorious sex pest like Andrew Cuomo just shows what a nasty hypocrite she is.

New York, you know what you need to do.

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Always Be Ithacating's avatar

I had not considered watching Andor until seeing this Rebellions Are Built on Hope gif. Live and learn!

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Ryan's avatar

This show's second and final season is freakishly on point considering it was written and filmed well before our current nightmare. It can be viewed as a standalone series, or with Rogue One as effectively nine movies leading directly into the 1977 original. Utterly worth the time.

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Daniel O'Riordan's avatar

Watch Andor, then watch Rogue One. They deliberately built on a lot of the themes in Rogue One to make the movie deeper.

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Zyxomma's avatar

Ta, MM. Mamdani was ranked #1 on my ballot, on which there was no room for Cuomo. His flirting with a run as an independent (as if Eric Adams doing so isn't bad enough) makes me want to barf. Just go away, losers, Cuomo back to Westchester where he lives, and maybe Adams would be more comfortable in Turkey.

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Daniel O'Riordan's avatar

We get a three-way race to the bottom with Cuomo, Adams, and Sliwa fighting for all the asshole voters.

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Littorally Speaking's avatar

Just a observation, “Vichy” is a lot fewer characters to type than “establishment” or even “moderate” ...

HAPPY TO BE SERVICEY

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oscarphile's avatar

Except last Nov it wasn't the economy, stupid. It was trans swimmers and pronouns and drag queen story hours and cat-eating Haitians and litterboxes in classrooms and a staged assassination photo-op and who worked at McDonalds? and who retired from the Nat'l Guard too soon? and an epidemic of psychotic misogynoir

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rlcornelius's avatar

Yeah, it's no longer "...the economy, stupid." Now, it's "...the culture wars, stupid" instead. I know people in real life who are so scared of gay and trans people they will gladly vote for economic pain if it means "those people" have to go back into the closet. Sounds terrible, but these voters exist, and I don't see any signs of them leaving the culture wars to go back to the economy, as it were.

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oscarphile's avatar

They just have to be outvoted, or die off

And when 5,000 rural hospitals close, more likely the latter

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Ron Spangler's avatar

"I'm Zohran Mamdani, and I'm from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party."

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Ron Spangler's avatar

A Lyndon Johnson Democrat, so definitely a total radical leftist Marxist.

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Ron Spangler's avatar

Mamdani's not the problem, the ahistorical press is the problem. The Right can't revise history unless you let them. You're letting them. Stop it.

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Regret's avatar

Having fun talking to yourself?

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Hank Napkin's avatar

I read the news. I listen to the reports. I check on comments and I 👍 or I 👎 or maybe I'll have something to add 👋. But it's a bit of a chore, being and staying informed. So I put all that aside and remind myself: "No worries! We have Jeffries! We have Schumer!"

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Daniel O'Riordan's avatar

"We've been doing this for thirty years, and we know what we're doing, so you kids can just sit down, shut up, and wait for us to tell you who to vote for."

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Hank Napkin's avatar

TRUST! How does it work?

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Les Bontemps's avatar

Like Oxfam says, every billionaire is a policy failure.

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Stulexington's avatar

Do they have a right to live? Absolutely! Do they have a right to their money? They have a right to the money they have earned, if they have more money than they have earned, they do not have a right to keep the money they did not earn.

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Regret's avatar

Define "earned". Because that's the big ideological problem here, what does it mean to have earned something? If Alice and Bob work together to move a table, and they get paid $50 for doing so most people agree that together they earned $50, but if Alice got $40 and Bob got $10 is there now a difference between "earned" and "received"?

1. A billionaire that thinks they worked for their money would say Alice earned $40 because she managed to get away with it.

2. I would say they both earned $25 and Alice stole $15 from Bob.

3. A billionaire that believes passive income is a fair way to make money would say they both earned $10 and Alice stole $30 from their employer.

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Stulexington's avatar

2 would be correct barring some agreement, say Alice gets more to pay for gas from using her vehicle. Here I thought the word "earned" was clear and not open to interpretation.

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Regret's avatar

Edit to add: In the context of billionaires earning money, the logical read is for the money that is earned to be the previously referenced billion.

That said, I'd say that billionaires cannot have earned their money, simply because no sane person would pay someone that much money for working.

Let's say this billionaire works for 10 hours every day without vacation for 50 years (steel-manning your opponent's position is polite), this makes 10*365*50 = 182 500 hours of work.

1 billion dollars divided by 182 500 means an hourly wage of almost $5500. If Alice gets $5500 an hour and Bob gets $10 (Alice is a better than average boss, Alice doesn't pay minimum wage), then both earned $2755 and Alice stole $2745 from Bob.

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Stulexington's avatar

I’m not sure why you’re still saying these things like I disagree. I agreed with your last analogy, I just added a caveat to cover my bases. This is really sounding like you and the one you’re backing up are trying to pick a fight.

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Regret's avatar

I'm sorry to sound like I'm picking a fight, I just kept getting the impression you don't get why saying they earned their money when talking about billionaire leads people to conclude that you mean that they earned their billion. Now it is clear to me.

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Brianna Amore's avatar

Even $100 million is more money than God. Ten times that amount? Twenty? Fifty? A hundred? Completely immoral. NOBODY needs that much money.

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Stulexington's avatar

You seem to be responding to the wrong post, nothing you have said has any relevance to what I have said.

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Regret's avatar

You said billionaires earned their money, I think Brianna believes the earnedness (is that a valid neologism? I mean the trait of having been earned) of money is a result of need. That makes their post apply.

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Stulexington's avatar

I said no such thing, I said what money they earn. You know, like no they shouldn’t be allowed to keep the money they exploited.

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Brianna Amore's avatar

I was referring to the existence of billionaires.

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Erisian's avatar

"fellow New York Dems, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries"

* Sen Schumer and the rest of the Dem Geriatric Leadership Caucus ("… you’re a living anachronism. But not in a romantic way, like a streetcar or a Ferris wheel. But like cigarette smoke indoors." Damon Young) need to step down en masse as they have been proven to be ineffectual when it comes to combatting the assholery of the MAGAdroids. They appear to be taking the position that their past failed methods are guaranteed to work in the midterms since the RINOs are finding new and ingenious ways to fuck the country. Schumer, himself, has shown himself to be living in the past with his thinking that the MAGAdroids have any interest at all for a dialog that will benefit anyone who isn't a sworn member of their tribe. He seems to feel that the other side of the aisle will negotiate in good faith and keep their promises. (Sen Schumer, how many amendments to the CR you allowed to proceed to the floor after the RINOs said that they would consider amendments prior to the final vote actually made it into the CR, or into a Floor debate even?)

* Speaker Jeffries started out like a bat out of hell, but has been disappointing for some time now. He heads off on a book tour at a critical time in the House. He might talk the talk of the loyal opposition, but he sure don't walk the walk. Rather than stand behind Dem policies, try to push through at least a few Dem priorities, and fully support successful Dem candidates (like Mayor-elect Mamdani), he is becoming Caspar Milquetoast. I expected more from a next-gen Dem leader.

(Full disclosure: I am not a Dem nor a Repub, I'm a proud independent. I am a conservative liberal [it really is a thing but there are conflicting definitions], I stand on the right flank of the liberal movement. Things must change, but it will take time, money, and drive to unravel the Gordian knot our society has become; society is not Alexander the Great, we can't just slash our way to equality, justice, and everything else needed to live, thrive, and survive. As Ruth Bader Ginsburg said: “Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.”)

fnord

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belfryo's avatar

“Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.”

True. but those 'steps' need to be a LOT closer together than they are. The steps are too far apart from each other to create the momentum needed for follow through

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Stulexington's avatar

Mamdani should carry a recording of all the times he's clarified this and simply stare at the questioner while playing the montage.

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Trux Mint In Box's avatar

DNC afraid of losing their grip on the donations coming in. Always about fucking money

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Brianna Amore's avatar

And what did they do with all that money last election? Pissed it all away, of course.

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BECKY's avatar

I hope that the Democratic Party does not try to ratfuck Mamdani and, by extension, disenfranchise the very voters they need.

We are run by old school democrats who are not going to change their ways even though it should be obvious to all of them, this isn't working. Look at how AOC and David Hogg were treated. Go away kids you bother me....

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Bitter Scribe's avatar

What the FUCK is Jeffries thinking? He should be raging, calling out Republican racism and religious bigotry for what it is. If you can't support a fellow Democrat, at least keep your stupid mealy mouth shut.

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Daniel O'Riordan's avatar

Armed, unidentified gunmen broke into Congressman Jerry Nadler's Manhattan office, handcuffed an aide for no reason, harassed everyone in the office, then left after uncuffing the aide.

What was Hakeem Jeffries response?

Senator Alex Padilla asked for clarification of an answer by KKrist Knome in a press conference and was wrestled to the ground and handcuffed.

What was Chuck Schumer's response?

Leadership in action.

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