Split New York City Mayoral Race

[Derec]

Trump’s greatest ally is the Democratic Party

Chris fucking Hedges? Really?

He is a left-wing extremist.

 

[Derec]

So Cuba isn't a communist nation

Technically not. It is socialist.
Communism in Marxist theory is the final (and utopian) end stage of socialism, and no actually existing socialist country had achieved it.
Hence the joke about "communism being on the horizon".

“That the last leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, although devoted to what he called the ‘socialist idea’, had long been sceptical about the ultimate goal of communism was evident from the fact that he recalled with relish a joke from Khrushchev’s time, albeit committing it to print only after the Soviet Union had ceased to exist: A certain lecturer, speaking about future communist society, concluded with the following remarks, ‘The breaking day of communism is already visible, gleaming just over the horizon.’ At this point an old peasant who had been sitting in the front row stood up and asked, ‘Comrade Lecturer, what is a horizon?’ The lecturer explained that it is a line where the earth and the sky seem to meet, having the unique characteristic that the more you move toward it, the more it moves away. The old peasant responded: ‘Thank you, Comrade Lecturer. Now everything is quite clear.’

because a lot of people own personal property and run their own private businesses?

In Marxism there is distinction between personal property (like toothbrushes) and private property that is used as means of production.
As to private businesses, to what extent does Cuba allow those? Maybe they are turning away from socialism like China has done. Or maybe these small businesses represent a small portion of the economy.
Yugoslavia was a socialist country that was less doctrinaire than Warsaw Pact countries in East Europe. It allowed some small private businesses, but the economy was nevertheless dominated by the public enterprises (technically in the form of worker self management) which means that the system was still a socialist one, even though it was more liberal than, say, Czechoslovakia.
Kind of like Denmark is still capitalist even though they have more regulation and a more generous social safety hammock than the US.

Whew. Glad I didn't make that mistake again.

Something tells me you still will.

 

[bilby]

That isn't true since BDS targets Israel, not every single Jew. To add--we keep hearing that Israel is a democracy that has free Arab Muslims running around with full rights. So, a boycott of Israel would also be effecting all these Arab Muslims as well, not merely Jews living in Israel.

You can't be that naive? The goal of BDS is to harm Jews in Israel, not Arabs.
Their end goal is for Israel to be abolished, and its territory be governed by Arabs.

Why does this matter one whit to anybody in this thread? Israel is outside the jurisdiction of the Mayor of New York, and is not (as far as I am aware) within a thousand miles of the homes of any of the people here.

It is a small and distant country, which has nothing anyone cares about, except those who fall into one of three categories:

People who live (or used to live) there; Archaeologists; and
Religious enthusiasts.

It just makes no sense to me why an atheist American would give shit the first about Israel, much less give it the dominance in debate that it clearly has.

I am all for discussion of world affairs, but cannot fathom why Israel is so massively more important to IIDBers than Sudan, or Kazakhstan, or Nepal.

What does Mamdani have to say about those countries, and why should it matter, given that his jurisdiction is the city of New York?

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

That isn't true since BDS targets Israel, not every single Jew. To add--we keep hearing that Israel is a democracy that has free Arab Muslims running around with full rights. So, a boycott of Israel would also be effecting all these Arab Muslims as well, not merely Jews living in Israel.

You can't be that naive?

I am not naive, you made inaccurate claims. Personally attacking me does not vindicate the inaccuracies in your post.

The goal of BDS is to harm Jews in Israel, not Arabs.

If that were the goal, then they'd be going about it the wrong way and besides that, this is NOT their stated goal. They are against anti-Semitism AND Islamophobia. You can't say the same thing, though, because you have stated that Islamophobia is rational.

Their end goal is for Israel to be abolished, and its territory be governed by Arabs.

You are backpedaling from comparison to Nazis.

 

[laughing dog]

The Islamists have been preparing the NYC electorate to vote for a Muslim for over a century by teaching children arithmetic using Arabic numbers, and algebra!

It's a misnomer to call our numerals "Arabic". The real Arabic 5 looks like a potato (aloo akhbar!) and the zero is a dot.

You can see the Arabic numerals on the obverse and European numerals (along with English writing) on the reverse.

Learn some history,   Arabic numbers.

 

[blastula]

 

[Spacetime Inhabitant]

In NYC having government run grocery stores with possible setting prices and wages replacing private sector stores for a lack of a better word is communism. Threaten profit of food chains and business will leave.

This is not communism; this is competition. That thing true capitalists are supposed to love.

Much like Trump and his tariffs Mandani has no idea what he is doing

That is a ridiculous claim, without evidence. Maybe someone named Mandani doesn't know what he is doing, but he isn't the mayor of NY.

View attachment 52654

Praying for your ratings, Dersh!

If he did make this statement, we can be sure he won't go through with it. False promises are always being made.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

The Islamists have been preparing the NYC electorate to vote for a Muslim for over a century by teaching children arithmetic using Arabic numbers, and algebra!

It's a misnomer to call our numerals "Arabic". The real Arabic 5 looks like a potato (aloo akhbar!) and the zero is a dot.

You can see the Arabic numerals on the obverse and European numerals (along with English writing) on the reverse.

Learn some history,   Arabic numbers.

It's pretty difficult (if not impossible) to get a right winger to understand the basic concept of history having connections to today.

 

[Elixir]

It is predicted that in about 10-15 years social security will not be able to pay full benefits as they are today.

That was predicted twenty years ago, too.

It was horseshit then; I am not planning to swallow it now.

True, and that is despite the fact that every Republican administration I can remember has been biting at it around the edges and screaming at Democrats for not letting them swallow it whole on behalf of their oligarch donors. They collect more than is needed to pay current benefits when things are good (generally when democrats are in charge), but the "surplus" is not held separately for future payout. Instead, the surplus is loaned to the federal government general fund which can use it to build golden ballrooms to stabilize the fragile ego of their figurehead, or anything else (except SNAP benefits) it wants.
If they'd stop stealing from SS for a decade or so, it would be MORE than solvent. But no, its only solvency is pseudo-solvency in the form of a note, from a government that is trying its best to destroy it.

 

[Elixir]

It's pretty difficult (if not impossible) to get a right winger to understand the basic concept of history having connections to today.

I think it's the math. If they knew the importance of the concept of zero to advanced calculations and stuff like that, they'd not be so fast to belittle the sand niggers for their handwriting.

 

[bilby]

If they knew the importance of the concept of zero to advanced calculations and stuff like that

Zero means nothing to these people.

 

[Elixir]

If they knew the importance of the concept of zero to advanced calculations and stuff like that

Zero means nothing to these people.

They think they’re MIT math wizards because they post on “X”.

 

[Derec]

Learn some history,   Arabic numbers.

I know the history, so there is no need to be condescending. Same goes for GenesisNemesis, bilby and Elixir with their ignorant piling-on.

My point was that regardless of history (and I am aware that the place-value system came to Europe via Arabs) the European digits which are now in international use are sufficiently different from actual Arabic numbers (as seen on the obverse of that 50 (or ٥٠ in Arabic numerals) riyal note) that they really should not be referred as Arabic.
And if you really want to honor history, we'd call them Indian numerals, since the positional system originated there, not in Arabia.

 

[Derec]

This is not communism; this is competition. That thing true capitalists are supposed to love.

Unfair competition from a government entity that can undercut private competition by being allowed to use city property for free and not having to turn a profit is certainly not something "true capitalists are supposed to love".
Grocery business is a low-margin business already. Being undercut by city government will almost certainly drive grocers out of business, making access worse, not better.

That is a ridiculous claim, without evidence. Maybe someone named Mandani doesn't know what he is doing, but he isn't the mayor of NY.

Mamdani doesn't know what he is doing either, and while he isn't the mayor of NYC yet, he will be come January.

Btw, he is already shifting his tone. During the election campaign, he tried to appear more moderate, but now the sheep's clothing is off.

An Emboldened Mamdani Sheds Conciliatory Tone

A newly empowered Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday vowed to use his convincing victory in the New York City mayor’s race as a mandate to push an ambitious progressive agenda past potential obstacles, from billionaire antagonists to Albany bureaucracy.
In a shift from the mollifying tone he had used for months, Mr. Mamdani made clear that while he would govern for all New Yorkers, he was determined to deliver for those who had been agitating for structural change.
[...]
The shift in tone was most striking when it came to his plan to raise taxes on the wealthy. In recent weeks, Mr. Mamdani had conveyed an openness to finding creative ways to pay for his signature policy initiative, universal child care, indicating that he was not necessarily set on raising taxes. There was plenty of revenue in the existing budget, he suggested.
[...]
The interview on Wednesday echoed Mr. Mamdani’s fiery victory speech on Tuesday evening, which took a more confrontational and at times boastful tone. The address was criticized by some observers as a “character switch” from his more congenial attitude during the campaign.

I knew from the beginning that the more moderate tone was just an act. He is still every bit the Third World socialist who vowed to "win socialism" by "seizing the means of production" and who echoed Karl Marx' infamous slogan "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs" in a tweet.

 

[laughing dog]

Learn some history,   Arabic numbers.

I know the history, so there is no need to be condescending. Same goes for GenesisNemesis, bilby and Elixir with their ignorant piling-on.

Your response hid that knowledge well.

My point was that regardless of history (and I am aware that the place-value system came to Europe via Arabs) the European digits which are now in international use are sufficiently different from actual Arabic numbers (as seen on the obverse of that 50 (or ٥٠ in Arabic numerals) riyal note) that they really should not be referred as Arabic.
And if you really want to honor history, we'd call them Indian numerals, since the positional system originated there, not in Arabia.

Until your crusade to defeat the Muslim “misnomer” of “Arabic” numbers succeeds, there is no useful point to your pedantry.

 

[Derec]

I am not naive, you made inaccurate claims. Personally attacking me does not vindicate the inaccuracies in your post.

I made no inaccurate claims. BDSers are treating Israel different than all other countries precisely because it's the only Jewish state.
And I think you realize that. The claim that they are just anti-Zionist and not anti-Semitic is a flimsy fig leaf that I do not think you are too naïve to see through that.

BDS is focusing all their ire on Israel, even though they were the ones brutally attacked on 10/7/2023 by terrorist groups working on behalf of the Tehran regime. It's like blaming Ukraine for defending itself against the Russian invasion.
And I have never seen the "not antisemitic, we swear" BDS criticizing Hamas, Hezbollah or Iran.

For that matter, they are not calling for boycotting, divesting or sanctioning UAE even though they are involved in the Sudanese civil war where, unlike in Gaza, there is an actual genocide underway.

If that were the goal, then they'd be going about it the wrong way and besides that, this is NOT their stated goal. They are against anti-Semitism AND Islamophobia. You can't say the same thing, though, because you have stated that Islamophobia is rational.

Islamophobia is a meaningless term, used to shut down any criticism of Islam and Islamists.
And how exactly are BDS "against anti-Semitism"?

You are backpedaling from comparison to Nazis.

My comparison in that post was about a single issue - boycotting based on being Jewish.

 

[Derec]

Keep digging that humorless hole in the hopes of getting out of it.

No hole at all.

 

[Derec]

Why does this matter one whit to anybody in this thread?

Mamdani himself made hatred of Israel a big part of his political identity.
He even vowed that he would order NYPD to arrest Netanyahu, even though he has no legal basis for it.

After all, when has "legal basis" ever deterred terrorism sympathizers?

 

[laughing dog]

Why does this matter one whit to anybody in this thread?

Mamdani himself made hatred of Israel a big part of his political identity.

Since he has repeatedly said Israel has the right to exist, you exaggerate.

 

[pood]

Why does this matter one whit to anybody in this thread?

Mamdani himself made hatred of Israel a big part of his political identity.
He even vowed that he would order NYPD to arrest Netanyahu, even though he has no legal basis for it.

Of course there is. The International Criminal Court has issued a warrant for the bastard’s arrest.