Split New York City Mayoral Race

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Mamdani won because he spoke to the real world struggles many New Yorkers have

And by the way, what the fuck would this privileged posh boy know about real world struggles? He comes from a wealthy back ground, has never had a real job and wasn't even brought up in the USA? How the fuck this demagogue is held up as some sort of working class hero is risible. He's about as working class as King Charles.

You do realize that most of the criticisms also apply to Trump. But what is interesting here is that you right-wingers also attacked AOC because she used to be a bartender, i.e. real world struggles. Anyway, the real reason that Mamdani won is that it was a vote against Trump.

I don't think that is accurate seeing that Cuomo was a Democrat. It was Populist v Democrat v some fucking crazy right-winger. The Populist and Democrat got over 90% of the vote. Mamdani won because he wasn't the establishment nor had the baggage of Cuomo. Mamdani spoke to struggling people who wanted to be heard.

That's true but the economic struggle of ordinary people is also highly correlated (and related) to the things the Trump administration is doing. Cuomo in a sense represents the uncaring political elite almost as much as Trump does. Voting for Cuomo whom Trump endorsed and who had changed his language to be more aligned to the center represented a middle, even if formerly a Democrat. People could predict a little more compliance from Cuomo, even if Cuomo claimed he would oppose Trump more. So a vote for Mamdani was an extra-oppositional vote against Trump. It's saying we want to change course completely, which is both anti-Trump and populist/anti-establishment.

Anyway, it's rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Trump will take advantage of Mamdani's election just in different ways than he would have taken advantage of Cuomo's election. Fascism is still moving forward.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/05/politics/mamdani-transition-team-nyc

I didn't know Islamists were about letting women do stuff.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Mamdani won because he spoke to the real world struggles many New Yorkers have

And by the way, what the fuck would this privileged posh boy know about real world struggles? He comes from a wealthy back ground, has never had a real job and wasn't even brought up in the USA? How the fuck this demagogue is held up as some sort of working class hero is risible. He's about as working class as King Charles.

You do realize that most of the criticisms also apply to Trump. But what is interesting here is that you right-wingers also attacked AOC because she used to be a bartender, i.e. real world struggles. Anyway, the real reason that Mamdani won is that it was a vote against Trump.

I don't think that is accurate seeing that Cuomo was a Democrat. It was Populist v Democrat v some fucking crazy right-winger. The Populist and Democrat got over 90% of the vote. Mamdani won because he wasn't the establishment nor had the baggage of Cuomo. Mamdani spoke to struggling people who wanted to be heard.

That's true but the economic struggle of ordinary people is also highly correlated (and related) to the things the Trump administration is doing.

No, not really in this case. NYC has seen a huge boom in parts in the last 30 years. But other parts, no. Other parts struggle. Other parts were neglected by banks and it became a self-perpetuating cycle of poverty in areas. Some places see a rebound, but then the poor people are kicked out. Large cities like NYC have unique economic situations. The good parts do well while the inner city locations are rundown and neglected.

Cuomo in a sense represents the uncaring political elite almost as much as Trump does. Voting for Cuomo whom Trump endorsed and who had changed his language to be more aligned to the center represented a middle, even if formerly a Democrat. People could predict a little more compliance from Cuomo, even if Cuomo claimed he would oppose Trump more. So a vote for Mamdani was an extra-oppositional vote against Trump. It's saying we want to change course completely, which is both anti-Trump and populist/anti-establishment.

Anyway, it's rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Trump will take advantage of Mamdani's election just in different ways than he would have taken advantage of Cuomo's election. Fascism is still moving forward.

To me, the Cuomo voters are the establishment voters. I doubt many people voted for Cuomo because Trump said he endorsed him. They voted Cuomo because he represented the status quo and stability of the establishment. They didn't like the unknown that was Mamdani or were uncomfortable with some of the shit Mamdani has said. Honestly, I don't know who I would have voted for. Cuomo was safe, Mamdani says a lot of stuff that he can't follow through on. Of course, Cuomo's ugly advertising late probably would have shifted me to Mamdani. Cuomo could have tried to swing a bit left and push for trying to end food deserts, but instead, he went ugly. What I wouldn't have been worried about would be the massive Muslim community centers being constructed all around the World Trade Center. Fuck, I'm getting old.

 

[Derec]

Goodness you are paranoid.

Not paranoid, just realistic.

It isn't like he got 80% of the vote.

No, but he got >50%. I was hoping that sane New Yorkers would keep him in low 40s. No such luck.

And Hochul isn't getting pushed into turning NYC into 1960s Cuba.

I never said anything about "1960s Cuba". But with a DSA primary challenger, she certainly might be pushed into supporting Mamdani's plans such as hiking taxes and implementing a $30/h minimum wage.

 

[Derec]

https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/05/politics/mamdani-transition-team-nyc

I didn't know Islamists were about letting women do stuff.

Comrade Cardamom is not an Islamist himself, but he has no problem allying himself with them.

 

[Shadowy Man]

https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/05/politics/mamdani-transition-team-nyc

I didn't know Islamists were about letting women do stuff.

Comrade Cardamom is not an Islamist himself, but he has no problem allying himself with them.

Can you elaborate on the nature of the alliance?

 

[Derec]

No, not really in this case. NYC has seen a huge boom in parts in the last 30 years. But other parts, no. Other parts struggle. Other parts were neglected by banks and it became a self-perpetuating cycle of poverty in areas. Some places see a rebound, but then the poor people are kicked out. Large cities like NYC have unique economic situations. The good parts do well while the inner city locations are rundown and neglected.

It's a Catch 22. NYC is a popular place for people to visit and to live in. That means a huge demand, but supply is limited by geography. There is a finite amount of NYC to go around. Density is already high, and can only be increased so much before you start decreasing the quality of life substantially. All that means rising prices. One way to keep the demand low is for a neighborhood to be rundown, to not be safe etc. If you fix those things and make a neighborhood more desirable, you increase demand, and thus it is no longer affordable.
Populists like Mamdani offer simple to understand ideas that fly in the face of economic reality.

As H.L. Mencken said, "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.".

To me, the Cuomo voters are the establishment voters. I doubt many people voted for Cuomo because Trump said he endorsed him. They voted Cuomo because he represented the status quo and stability of the establishment. They didn't like the unknown that was Mamdani or were uncomfortable with some of the shit Mamdani has said. Honestly, I don't know who I would have voted for. Cuomo was safe, Mamdani says a lot of stuff that he can't follow through on.

So far, so good.

Of course, Cuomo's ugly advertising late probably would have shifted me to Mamdani.

But why? That's like cutting off your nose to spite your face?

Cuomo could have tried to swing a bit left and push for trying to end food deserts, but instead, he went ugly.

Cuomo is already pretty left, or at least he has been as governor. Does NYC have a real problem with food deserts? And what do you think Cuomo should have proposed concretely to address the issue?

What I wouldn't have been worried about would be the massive Muslim community centers being constructed all around the World Trade Center. Fuck, I'm getting old.

Muslims like to erect mosques on top of other cultures' sacred sites (such as the Temple Mount in Jerusalem) or culturally appropriate them (such as the Hagia Sofia in the city known as Constantinople and Byzantium before Islamic conquests). I see the urge for Muslims to erect a mosque on the WTC site that they destroyed (on their 2nd attempt) as part of that Muslim triumphalism. And somebody like Mamdani getting elected is playing right into their hands.

 

[Derec]

Can you elaborate on the nature of the alliance?

I did upthread. Mamdani attended Wahhaj's event and praised him as a religious leader in NYC.
Wahhaj, on the other hand, thinks thousands of New York Muslims should rise up under the banner of Jihad and that Islamic rule should replace democracy.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Goodness you are paranoid.

Not paranoid, just realistic.

No, it is paranoia. You get that way around Muslims.

It isn't like he got 80% of the vote.

No, but he got >50%. I was hoping that sane New Yorkers would keep him in low 40s. No such luck.

Are you aware of Cuomo's last ads? They were rather disgusting. They likely pushed middle of the road folks away.

And Hochul isn't getting pushed into turning NYC into 1960s Cuba.

I never said anything about "1960s Cuba". But with a DSA primary challenger, she certainly might be pushed into supporting Mamdani's plans such as hiking taxes and implementing a $30/h minimum wage.

To be fair, I can't imagine living in NYC and making less than $250k a year. Forget $15 an hour. Regardless, Hochul getting tossed around like a rag doll.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/05/politics/mamdani-transition-team-nyc

I didn't know Islamists were about letting women do stuff.

Comrade Cardamom is not an Islamist himself, but he has no problem allying himself with them.

You posted the same shit about the church Obama went to. Where is the hill of beans that resulted in?

 

[Shadowy Man]

Can you elaborate on the nature of the alliance?

I did upthread. Mamdani attended Wahhaj's event and praised him as a religious leader in NYC.

that’s it? What else has he done that counts as an alliance? Maybe you use the word different than I do.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

No, not really in this case. NYC has seen a huge boom in parts in the last 30 years. But other parts, no. Other parts struggle. Other parts were neglected by banks and it became a self-perpetuating cycle of poverty in areas. Some places see a rebound, but then the poor people are kicked out. Large cities like NYC have unique economic situations. The good parts do well while the inner city locations are rundown and neglected.

It's a Catch 22. NYC is a popular place for people to visit and to live in. That means a huge demand, but supply is limited by geography. There is a finite amount of NYC to go around. Density is already high, and can only be increased so much before you start decreasing the quality of life substantially. All that means rising prices. One way to keep the demand low is for a neighborhood to be rundown, to not be safe etc. If you fix those things and make a neighborhood more desirable, you increase demand, and thus it is no longer affordable.

I think you misspelled Corporate Banks shifted invested from inner cities to white suburbs in the 50s and 60s and the result wasn't pretty. Yes, inner cities probably never been super pretty, but decades of neglect are a problem, which self-perpetuates itself after a while. No, it isn't easy keeping everything nice, but these areas have been left to rot for unpleasant reason. And the people living there want something to improve.

Populists like Mamdani offer simple to understand ideas that fly in the face of economic reality.

Yes, that is what I already said. Which is also part of the reason I don't get why there is this fear, seeing that the 'simple solutions' aren't simple and it isn't possible to enact changes like they are magic. Ending food deserts won't be profitable, so how do you make it work.

To me, the Cuomo voters are the establishment voters. I doubt many people voted for Cuomo because Trump said he endorsed him. They voted Cuomo because he represented the status quo and stability of the establishment. They didn't like the unknown that was Mamdani or were uncomfortable with some of the shit Mamdani has said. Honestly, I don't know who I would have voted for. Cuomo was safe, Mamdani says a lot of stuff that he can't follow through on.

So far, so good.

Of course, Cuomo's ugly advertising late probably would have shifted me to Mamdani.

But why? That's like cutting off your nose to spite your face?

Because I wouldn't vote for the guy trying to get the racist vote.

Cuomo could have tried to swing a bit left and push for trying to end food deserts, but instead, he went ugly.

Cuomo is already pretty left, or at least he has been as governor. Does NYC have a real problem with food deserts?

YES! Inner cities all have this problem. Access to food, banking, services is problematic because they live in areas where profitability of these things is almost a certain loser. But they still need access to these things.

And what do you think Cuomo should have proposed concretely to address the issue?

Effectively, he needs grocers to step up. Work something out. It'll cost money, but being an establishment guy, he'd know that and have the right pieces in place to forge some sort of solution. Mamdani probably won't. It'll take him a year maybe to just get the wheels rolling.

What I wouldn't have been worried about would be the massive Muslim community centers being constructed all around the World Trade Center. Fuck, I'm getting old.

Muslims like to erect mosques on top of other cultures' sacred sites (such as the Temple Mount in Jerusalem) or culturally appropriate them (such as the Hagia Sofia in the city known as Constantinople and Byzantium before Islamic conquests). I see the urge for Muslims to erect a mosque on the WTC site that they destroyed (on their 2nd attempt) as part of that Muslim triumphalism. And somebody like Mamdani getting elected is playing right into their hands.

Life is too damn short to worry about windmills.

 

[Derec]

No, it is paranoia. You get that way around Muslims.

It's not paranoia since it's based on a real threat.

Are you aware of Cuomo's last ads? They were rather disgusting. They likely pushed middle of the road folks away.

I am not. Do you have a link?
In any case, I can't imagine voting for somebody I know is the greater weevil just because of a couple of bad ads.
Would you ever vote for Trump just because Kamala's camp released some unsavory ads?

To be fair, I can't imagine living in NYC and making less than $250k a year. Forget $15 an hour. Regardless, Hochul getting tossed around like a rag doll.

Where do you get $250k as some sort of minimum? According to this, the median household income in NYC is $76-77k. Even in Manhattan, it's "only" $101k. This site breaks the distribution more granularly. In Manhattan, only ~22% of households made >$250k. There were more households <$40k. And that's the most expensive borough.

Minimum wage is just that, minimum. And $30/h translates to ~60k/a working full time; more with overtime. That's for people working at dollar slice pizza joints or $8 halal food trucks Mr. Cardamom is so enamored of. At least he is using forks this time ...
Do you really think these trucks could sell chicken over rice for $8 if everyone working there is paid ≥$30/h instead of say, starting people at $15/h?
And speaking of food trucks, this looks really unsanitary.

 

[Bronzeage]

What is "communism"?

Social ownership of the means of production is the economic basis of both phases of communism.
[...]
From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!" (Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme", in Marx and Engels, Selected Works, 1950, English edition, Vol. II, p. 23.)

As you can see, Comrade Cardamom certainly talks the commie talk.

Umm, no, actually. I don't see any evidence of that at all.

He expressed both of the bolded ideas. The first one in this speech at a DSA conference, the second one in the tweet I posted just a few posts upthread.
There are none so blind as those who will not see.

Democrats turning to their own extremists like Товарищ Зохран is not a healthy way to fight against Trumpism.

Democratic socialism is certainly healthier for us all, that Republican National Socialism.

If Republicans hadn't been so eager to be a host for the parasite Trump, there might still be moderate Republicans who could offer an alternative to a scary dark skinned man with a foreign sounding name. It's easy to choose the unknown quantity of Mamdani, when the alternative is the clearly understood sociopathic Trump.

There is a parasitic strategy used by various bacteria, viruses, and multi-celled creatures which infect its host and cause behavioral changes for the parasite's benefit. There's a protozoan called Toxoplasma which can infect any mammal, but for unknown reasons, can only reproduce in a cat. When Toxoplasma infects a rodent, the poor animal finds itself drawn to the scent of cat piss. The makes it a likely cat's meal and the circle of life continues.

Toxoplasma can infect humans, but the effects are uncertain. It might explain why several thousand people decided to attack the Capitol and assault law enforcement officers, an action which in normal circumstances would cause serious consequences in a person's life. But Trumpoplasma pardons all of them and the circle of life continues.

 

[Derec]

Democratic socialism is certainly healthier for us all, that Republican National Socialism.

That's like saying that Cs-137 is healthier than Co-60.

If Republicans hadn't been so eager to be a host for the parasite Trump, there might still be moderate Republicans who could offer an alternative to a scary dark skinned man with a foreign sounding name.

Mamdani is not even dark skinned. Seriously, his skin tone is almost identical to the hues of Cuomo and Professor Plum.

There is this tendency on the Left to impute "brownness" (and thus POC privileges) to anybody Muslim, no matter what. Kind of like how Linda "Cockroach" Sarsour said that she was just another white girl until she started wearing the hijab, after which she became a "person of color". Smfh.

He does have a foreign name though. It means something like "Bloomin' Mohammedan" from what I heard.

It's easy to choose the unknown quantity of Mamdani,

He is not that unknown. He has been in the state legislature for years, and has expressed some very Marxist as well as rabidly anti-Israel opinions.

when the alternative is the clearly understood sociopathic Trump.

The alternative was not Trump. The alternative was Andrew Cuomo, a mainstream Democrat who already served as a somewhat liberal governor. He is not a Republican, and he is not even a Joe Manchinesque Democrat.
On the other hand, Mamdani is not a a real Democrat, but a DSA plant.

Toxoplasma can infect humans, but the effects are uncertain. It might explain why several thousand people decided to attack the Capitol and assault law enforcement officers, an action which in normal circumstances would cause serious consequences in a person's life.

It more likely explains the phenomenon of "crazy cat ladies" who hoard a horde of a dozen cats or so.

But in more figurative sense, it may explain the likes of "Queers of Palestine" or "Jews for Mamdani".
Also, if you link "political toxoplasmosis" with rioting, do you also link it with left-wing riots, like the 2014 Ferguson Riots and 2020 George Floyd Riots? Or is this just a purely partisan thing for you?

 

[Bronzeage]

Or is this just a purely partisan thing for you?

No, just a sensible and truthful thing.

 

[TV and credit cards]

Mamdani victory fires up Europe's left against right-wing surge at home
Didn't think it would travel outside the US. It will be something to keep in mind to see if it has any momentum.

 

[Elixir]

Toxoplasma can infect humans, but the effects are uncertain. It might explain why several thousand people decided to attack the Capitol and assault law enforcement officers

Overcrowding-induced stress hormones such as those that afflict lemmings, are a more likely explanation IMO.
Well nurtured xenophobia was given an outlet and voila, a small army of zomboids.
I guess that and Toxoplasma are not mutually exclusive

 

[laughing dog]

No, it is paranoia. You get that way around Muslims.

It's not paranoia since it's based on a real threat.

What threat is real?

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

And speaking of food trucks, this looks really unsanitary.

Dude, no one's making you lick sweat off their chests.