Zohran Mamdani

Need more lightness than darkness, and the success of Zohran Mamdani is light to me.

The Pedophile-in-chief has signaled retreat from seeing what he can do. He's talked to Cuomo, and that has been the kiss of death for him, and called Silwa a loser--Silwa probably doesn't like Trump's vigilante ways as a fellow vigilante. New York doesn't like Trump, New York State didn't vote for him, and his attempts to disrupt the democracy in New York City seem to have floundered. 

Whatever health even that is drooping his face seems to have taken some of the wind out of his sail. Everything he accuses others of, he's guilty of, that's his technique, counter accuse. Biden is too old, means he thinks he's too old. If only a fading Pedophile-in-chief fixed things, his cadres of enablers don't really need him to wreck things up. 

Now the wishy washy, bought and sold governor of New York has endorsed Zohran Mamdani. She must have concluded the polls are accurate that show him winning easily. Cuomo and Silwa are canceling each other out. Trump doesn't have any secret levers to override the people's choice. It looks like he's the next Mayor of New York. 50 days till November 4th. I think election day is the first Tuesday in November. 

The New York Post is going hard smearing Mamdani, that must mean he's good. Just like Trump disliking him, sort of go the opposite direction of those folks. Like when Musk said he didn't like Wikipedia, it deepened my love of Wikipedia. 

Brian Kilmeade

The death of Kirk has brought about people trying to fill the void of rancid politics, and Brian Kilmeade stepped up. He suggested we kill homeless people on TV (skeet). Reading his wikipedia page, this isn't an aberration, he likes counter-jihads, he likes pure blood of Finns and Swedes, sees all terrorists as Muslims. He likes to spread lies about judges whom he doesn't like the rulings. I can see why the right doesn't like Wikipedia, it's factual, honest, and makes outlandish comments as part of the record, not ephemeral things. 

Heather Cox Richardson:

"Senator Joe McCarthy (R-WI) pioneered this technique in the 1950s when he would grab media attention with outrageous statements and outright lies that destroyed lives, then flit to the next target, leaving fact checkers panting in his wake. By the time they proved he was lying, the news cycle had leaped far ahead, and the corrections got nowhere near the attention the lies had."

Attention getting lies and controversial statements that befuddle the people. 

Brian Kilmeade defends the Assaulter-in-Chief separating families, climate change denial. He has said some criticisms of Trump, he's not a complete shill, just a mostly shill. 

You can't capture the death cult nature of Trump more than this statement of wishing to kill humans. 

I don't think apologies are sincere, I think Kilmeade lets you know who he is, and he worries about the backlash of people being disgusted by his articulation of the death cult. A real apology would be to stop spouting such hateful murder cult bile. He has such a long history of it, it's hard to imagine he won't stop. Anyway, he was trying to get attention in the attention economy, and he got it. The apology is just another moment in the spotlight for him. The nihilist can play both sides all he wants for attention. He likes purity of blood. Hitler went after the people with disabilities first. He cleaned out all the group homes of people with disabilities.

Political notes for September

My father expressed the fears he's the only democrat in Florida, and I looked it up. 4.3m democrats, 5m republicans, only 55.55% republican. Hardly overwhelming to me. 

He said we don't have access to the AI that knows a lot, that's writing code. I said if we don't know about it, we can't talk about it. He thought we could. I said, "Are you a republican now?" He laughed at that. 

History repeats itself, but we're in a new information age, which strangely has made us dumber with the growing pains. 

Herbert Hoover was the dumb conservative who made the great depression worse. FDR took us out of it. Biden was too early and too old to take us out of the recession we're in because of Trump, who is only good at wrecking things. Making the USA more independent doesn't work, it's a globe now, and you have to understand the times, not go back to some unrealistic and never happened fantasy of how things were. Great leaders understand the fantasy and lead us out of it's unrealisticness. 

There's never going to be a president that the left and right like, because political bias is just an aspect of our personality. Either you want to starve children or you want to feed children. Either you're overcome and transcended your childhood trauma and you're not afraid of empathy, or you think because it happened to you, go crueler. 

The supreme court rules you can use race stopping people but you can't in college admissions. What we've lost is integrity. America has regressed. That and shame. In Buddhism apatrapya is shame, for the good. 

Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching (C. S. Lewis) and the current regime doesn't even care that people are watching. 

Trump is bad for America

Deploying troops in DC is wrong. If he wants to stop crime go to Memphis or high crime cities. 

Being against wind power is just stupid. Fact is, it's going up. His oil stocks will hold their value anyway. 

Constant lying. Changing the way the USA reports data won't change the reality that we're spiraling into a recession. 

Pardoned insurrectionists, he should be held accountable. 

The hype-partisand environment is really dysfunctional.

He breaks things and then fixes them, that's not really doing anything but smoke and mirrors. 

He's honestly breaking the conservative principles by suggesting owning part of Intel. 

If he gave everyone medicare he'd be a great hero, and become wildly popular. I'd feel ambivalent about that but honestly as much as I hate him, I'd rather the American people were taken care of. 

Just challenging every liberal piety doesn't make sense. The death penalty in DC, sure he can suggest his DA go for that, but there are laws and judges. Anyway, the death penalty doesn't save money and doesn't go back in time and prevent things that happened, or strike at the roots of the causes of the pathologies. It's cosmetic like everything he, I can't use the verb "does" because he breaks and repairs, he's not doing anything. He's pushing his white supremacist agendas by firing as many minorities as he can, and tries to fire people he can't fire. 

He runs his grifts and enriches his family--I've heard two idiots say it's no more than Obama did, and that's just plain wrong. The people who think all politicians are corrupt, and can't see the difference between Obama and Trump, well, that's just stupid. Obama is enriched by his salary and book publishing, and investments. Trump is running grifts and all sorts of corruption schemes, there's quite a difference of both how and how much he's enriching himself. The crypto-currency hides part of his corruption, we can only guess at. Even so, he's by order quite significantly different in how and how much he's enriching himself. 

JFK Jr. trying to get an academic journal article unpublished is the height of denial of reality. 

There are so many double standards. Biden was too old, but Trump isn't? Inflation was crazy after Covid, but it's also crazy now, and it's OK? We're going into recession, Biden was so much better for the economy. It's the sadistic vote, the I'd rather not have one kid taking advantage of a free lunch than 99 starving crowd, fantasizing they were rich enough to get a tax break, meanwhile actually getting a tax hike, and the government going deeper into debt so that every dollar we put in, isn't as worth much, because it's all just paying off debt from thieves who sabotage the government. 

Reddit has a list of 19 reasons for impeachment.

Quick blurb

Someone complained about r/USHistory was too negative. Here is my response:

One of the things about trying to be a better nation is that you really look at things, and when you look closely, you see a lot of things that could be improved. To me, pride in America is about trying to improve America and not just superficial self esteem boosts and participation trophies. Let's get this democracy working, let's do a good job for all Americans. If you're a white supremacist, you want a rigged system, that's what the roll back of DEI, and the firing of black and women generals in the military. Asking Texas to find 5 more senators isn't an American thing, the way you win seats is to be a popular president, but he's tanking in popularity as the economy tanks, and he knows he's going to be in trouble. If you really want to get chaos down, send troops into cities where there's high homicide rates, not DC. There's ways of doing things, and then there's ways of wrecking up the place, and just grifting protection scams. America was an amazing country from 1776-2025, but we've lost American exceptionalism by abandoning the rule of law by siding with Russia against Ukraine. The loss of the middle class is horrible, I mean there's very little to be proud of America about right now, unless you're a hate filled racist, who wants to wreck up the government because you don't like government--but he's not lowering taxes on anyone except the ultra rich. It's really quite a horrible day in America, and if you think things are going really well, then what can I say, you're not really into the vision of America, maybe you would like Italian fascism, Franco in Spain, or other chaotic violent right wing regimes, which is terrible for the people and the economy. America has been hoodwinked on many levels. 

Course if I wrote that it would be downvoted, and I remove downvoted posts quickly, so I'm not even going to post it.

Listening to Heather Cox Richardson on Katie Couric's substack, and I'm all cranked up. 

I get the point about negative load, they even talk about it, like you know you can't keep up with the onslaught of atrocity and wrongs. It's information blasting, a gish gallop. 

Toying with the idea of studying persuasive rhetoric, giving it an informal practice. 

The conservative mind & gerrymandering

I think the conservative mind literally wants to kill complications, counterexamples to their theories and vision, hatred for the liberal imagination, and sees the freedom to murder kids accidentally in gun ownership as a right, while others rights don't exist. Like the right to a medically necessary abortion to save the mother's life, maybe a woman who malfunctions like that as a breeder doesn't deserve to live. Maybe marginal cases just should be erased easily.

If Texas gerrymanders, California and New York are talking about fighting back. Fighting all the time, just escalates, there are two wings that balance each other out, in a democracy, but in fascism, authoritarianism, Trumpism, you try to win at all costs, and are particular about not seeing the larger checks and balances. 

When you cheat to win, it means you don't think you can win with the regular rules. That's not really the democratic spirit. Until Trump, America was a democracy. 

My approach to Trump is as follows. Read he's showing charts to disprove the economy isn't tanking. So he's trying to quell panic, so that he has power a little longer. He sees his horizon of good will shrinking from the base. The economy tanking will erase his base. 

Ishkabibble

It's weird that people are just figuring out Trump is a monster. There's a lot of articles and posts on social media where I want to say, "no shit" or "what took you so long?"

Example: In 2020 I read an article in Mother Jones. If you read that article you don't need any list released. It would probably interesting for the names besides Trump, who we know liked him, admired him, hung out with him. 

Trump even said to grab married women by the pussy. I mean, that's enough right there. One crude comment maybe isn't enough to judge, but if you're paying attention. People who get it now were not paying attention.

How about ICE videos every day where they're beating people up? How about kidnapping, exporting without due process? He's sloppy and incompetent. He's a bad president. And they re-elected him. That's the ultimate shame of America. I'll never get over that. 

It's weird people are just waking up now. It shows how complicit the newspapers are with not knocking people over the head with it. It shows how willing people of a right wing political bent are willing to overlook things. Fox News is still going on and on about Hillary's e-mails, even though many Republicans have done the same thing. They don't focus on that. They're like an obsessed broken record. It's ishkabibble.

The Pedhofurher is spending a billion to outfit his plane, he's clearly got a fuck it attitude. No more elections, he doesn't care what the people think or history's legacy. He flew to Scotland to open a golf course on the US taxpayer's dime.

If you're really against graft and corruption in government, you have to be against the regime.

David Brooks in the Atlantic

The Atlantic has an article called Why Do So Many People Think That Trump Is Good? by David Brooks.

David Brooks takes a lot of liberties telling the story of morality in America. The hope is to explain why people like Trump. For me the explanation is nihilistic desire to wreck things up, the death instinct. People think they're going to clear things out, shake up the system. It's not working the way they want, good Americans resent taxes, and with inflation and global warming, why not just wreck things up? There's too much to worry about, life is too complicated. Just lower taxes.

Of course the current regime isn't lowering taxes, just shifting money into rich pockets and running various grifts. 

Brooks story is that in traditional society, that gave you a role, and a scope of how to think about ethics. You tried to be the best you could be in your role in society. That was the best ethical thing you could do. Now we don't have roles in society. I've worked in a restaurants, hardware store, library, taxi driver, schools, publishing, warehouses, as a social worker, chess tutor, a million different jobs. There's no role for me in society besides worker, father, husband, citizen. It hasn't been hard for me to figure out how I want to vote, and to see the importance of voting. 

I live in a immigrant neighborhood. I talk in the park while my daughter plays. I can't seem to convince anyone to vote. Some American born, first generation woman even made fun of me by suggesting people vote. My son reports the hispanic soccer players in the park love Trump. 

Certainly the sizeable Jewish population around me votes for lower taxes, they don't send their kids to public schools, they don't trust the government. There's a polish woman who home schools her children, "not enough god in school", who told me to forget Trump's sieg heils. Lots of people drive Tesla cars in a Jewish neighborhood. They must not be so afraid of another wave of anti-semitism like the one in WW2. 

Israel is beset on all sides, but it's a place where Jewish people can go if things get temporarily hot in their country. The Jewish people have been kicked out of all the middle eastern countries in the middle east, but took over Israel. They will not be kicked out of Israel. 

Trump likes strongmen, he likes North Korea, Russia, Hungary and Israel. At the moment, the right wing Jews in my neighborhood like the current regime. The left wing Jews don't like him, of course, but there is a woman who stands outside the voting who tells the orthodox Jewish people who to vote for. They're what you call a single issue voter, they follow closely who supports Israel the most, and then say to vote for them. She wanted me to vote for Cuomo, who I didn't even rank. I look Jewish, so she told me how to vote. If I wear my baseball cap to keep the sun out of my eyes, I'm covering my head, so I could be Jewish. 

She saw Mamdani as a Muslim monster because he's Muslim and because he's a democratic socialist. The bile that has come out of even Democrats mouths, is amazing. Yet a huge turnout in young voters, he won by the slimmest of margins--12 votes!

Now with Cuomo, Adams and Silwa splitting the right and center votes, Mamdani is ahead in the polls. The left is getting excited, maybe the revolution is really happening. The right is terrified of communism. I have a right wing friend who specializes in eastern european woman who hate communism. It's like the Cubans. They can drive on public roads, walk down public sidewalks, have the government take away garbage, and hate with a white hot passion doing collective good by the government. 

What they don't like is totalitarianism, authoritarianism, but they confuse the means of communists with the actual desire for public good. We should have health insurance already, but no, America has to be against that. 

I've digressed from Brook's story, but I'm describing the political reality on the grounds that I see. I see a retired bus driver who watches Fox news and thinks they're persecuting Trump, not holding him accountable to the rule of law. You can't talk to these people they're so brainwashed. Brooks purports to explain why these people are so befuddled and confused. They like authoritarianism, it tells them how to think in this confusing world. The loss of roles, the freedoms of the enlightenment have completely trashed the humans ability to think. Brooks quotes his hero Alasdair MacIntyre.

Some selected quotes from the article

"We’ve tried to cure the moral vacuum MacIntyre saw at the center of the Enlightenment with narcissism, fanaticism, and authoritarianism—and the cure turned out to be worse than the disease."

"How do people make decisions about the right thing to do if they are not embedded in a permanent moral order? They do whatever feels right to them at the moment. MacIntyre called this “emotivism,” the idea that “all moral judgments are nothing but expressions of preference, expressions of attitude or feeling.” Emotivism feels natural within capitalist societies, because capitalism is an economic system built around individual consumer preferences."

"One of the problems with living in a society with no shared moral order is that we have no way to settle arguments. We have no objective standard by which to determine that one view is right and another view is wrong. So public arguments just go on indefinitely, at greater levels of indignation and polarization."

We sort of see that playing out in the supreme court as they make up whatever suits the current regime. I used to think the court had precedence, and legal reasonsoning, but no more. 

"If no one can persuade anybody about right and wrong, then there are only two ways to settle our differences: coercion or manipulation."

"In the 1980s, the philosopher Allan Bloom wrote a book arguing that in a world without moral standards, people just become bland moral relativists: You do you. I’ll do me. None of it matters very much. This is what Kierkegaard called an aesthetic life: I make the choices that feel pleasant at the moment, and I just won’t think much about life’s ultimate concerns. As MacIntyre put it, “The choice between the ethical and the aesthetic is not the choice between good and evil, it is the choice whether or not to choose in terms of good and evil.”"

"Over the past 30 years, people have tried to fill the hole in their soul by seeking to derive a sense of righteousness through their political identities. And when you do that, politics begins to permeate everything and turns into a holy war in which compromise begins to seem like betrayal."

"Ted Clayton, a political scientist at Central Michigan University, put it well: “MacIntyre argues that today we live in a fragmented society made up of individuals who have no conception of the common good, no way to come together to pursue a common good, no way to persuade one another what the common good might be, and indeed most of us believe that the common good does not and cannot exist.”"

Read the article.

Here is his conclusion:

"Recovering from the moral scourge of Trumpism means restoring the vocabulary that people can use to talk coherently about their moral lives, and distinguish a person with character from a person without it. We don’t need to entirely reject the Enlightenment project, but we probably need to recalibrate the culture so that people are more willing to sacrifice some freedom of autonomy for the sake of the larger community. We need to offer the coming generations an education in morals as rigorous as their technical and career education. As the ancients understood, this involves the formation of the heart and the will as much as the formation of the rational mind."

Trying to revive America 

4th of July

I had a group of friends, and they emailed regularly. The rise of Trump killed the group. They argued and quit the group. 

There's a guy who lives above me, works at a grocery store, who's a libertarian, doesn't want government. He thought Obama was as corrupt as anyone else.

Night doorman across the street agrees with him. Denies the obvious difference in corruption.

Retired bus driver across the street thought Trump was being persecuted legally with frivolous cases. 

Jewish fellow in the park didn't think 700k people died from Trump's inaction around Covid. "Maybe".

Albanian woman in the park said, "you have the right to guns, right?"

Cote d'Ivoire woman thought the protests in Portland meant the January 6th insurrection was just a protest. She moved to Hungary with her mixed race children. They recently protested Orban saying don't celebrate pride with a massive turnout. The current regime likes Orban. 

Italian-American woman neighbor, who thought vaccines were bad, moved to Texas.

Irish-American woman who converted to Judaism moved to Idaho. She loved Trump.

Polish woman in the park said to forget Musk's two sieg heils. 

Senate passed the apocalypse bill, that's going to wreak havoc on America. Now only the House stands in front of it.

Trump is talking about exporting people he doesn't like from the country. Doesn't matter if they're citizens or if they were even born here, or fought for the country. 

We're truly looking at a horrible society of nightmares. 

HCR: "Just after noon today, the Senate passed its version of the budget reconciliation bill. All Democrats and Independents voted no. Three Republicans—Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina—joined the Democrats in voting no. That left the bill at 50–50. Vice President J.D. Vance cast the deciding vote, pushing the measure through the Senate and sending it back to the House to vote on the changes made by the Senate. From the reporters’ gallery above the floor, CNN’s Sarah Ferris heard Senator Angus King (I-ME) yell to his Republican colleagues: “Shame on you guys. That was the most disgusting vote I’ve ever seen in my life.” The measure cuts taxes for the wealthy and corporations and offsets those cuts in part by slashing Medicaid and food security programs for low-income Americans."

USA 1776-2025 RIP. I'm a third in denial, third minimizing and a third really really really angry. Only anti-social nihilists can applaud these moves. Call your Representatives, that's our only last hope. Protest on Saturday. Lots of people's dying words will be, "I blame Trump." Repetition compulsion, he's provoking another great depression. Hard times ahead, more violence.

Zohran Mamdani

Zohran Mamdani has won the Democratic primary for Mayor of NYC. Usually the democratic primary winner, wins the race. The time Giuliani won as a republican was when there was a referendum for Staten Island to succeed from NYC. So basically the people who didn't want to be in New York City elected Giuliani into office.

Zohran Mamdani (33) was born in Uganda, to Indian parents. Move to Cape Town when he was 5. His mother is a filmmaker (1991) film Mississippi Masala, starring Denzel Washington and 2016 Disney film Queen of Katwe) and his father is an academic at Columbia, who studies colonialism, was expelled from Uganda under the dictator Idi Amin. He's from Queens, he's in the State Assembly. Moved to NYC when he was 7. Went to Bronx Science, then Bowdoin College in Maine with a bachelors in African studies. Mamdani worked as a prevention counselor and cricketer, and attempted a career in hip hop (video). He worked on a few political campaigns and then ran himself. His district includes Astoria and Long Island City. 

The amount of weird stuff coming out is crazy, lots of fairly racist, islamophobia and against democratic socialist nonsense. Trump is against him, so that's the biggest endorsement you can give. To me, it makes people look really bad. 

Cuomo is going 3rd party, along with Adams, so it's going to be Adams, Cuomo, Curtis Sliwa and our man Zohran Mamdani. To me, anyone but Zohran Mamdani is a wasted vote. Zohran Mamdani will win in a landslide. There was unprecedented young voter turnout, hopefully that amazing trend continues. 

Cuomo and Adams are crony capitalism, which we're tired of. Silwa is wacky vigilanti pretending to be law and order candidate, running for the attention, knows he can't win. Actually if the DINOs who don't like Zohran Mamdani voted for him, he could get a little closer, but I'm pretty sure those 3 split their votes. And then there's the candidate for the people, who is savy and wise beyond his years and hopefully turns out to be a good leader, and can fight the negative press against him. De Blasio was slammed by the press and cast as bad, and he's one of the best mayors we've had in a long time. 

USA bombs Iran

If there was some mechanism for holding leaders accountable for murder, I would love that.

The current regime has done many harmful things, I could see this coming, with the tacit support of jingoistic New York Times. It's been quite a disillusioning time for this old fellow.

Links:

Heather Cox Richardson

I'm not going to link the Times which seems to think amplifying Taco Bone Spurs lies is valid journalism. 

Guardian

Disappointing New York Times

The top article on the left of the page is "A U.S. Attack on Iran Would Show the Limits of China’s Power" (NYT)

To me this is disgusting, exploring the potential benefits to harming another country by having a war with another country. It's disgusting.

I think I need to cancel my subscription.

"China has much to lose from a runaway conflict."

Um, the world, USA has too much to lose from conflict.

8/1/2025. I'm reading through the NY Times, and it's become too sympathetic to Trump, and it's become more of a tabloid with shocking headlines instead of deep analysis. The Guardian in England is the paper of record now.

Iran versus Israel

Iran presents itself as innocent, attacked for no reason. 

Israel doesn't even care anymore what others think. Not even it's own people. 

USA and Russia are corrupt and bankrupt, supporting this proxy war is the hight of their corruption and desire to distract.

Iran deserves nuclear weapons because they stop people from attacking a country. Who wouldn't want that? Iran is not righteous attacking Israel. Israel is not innocent or blameless.

Israel is involved in a long term racial, social, religious survival in hostile territory with lots of history, and many slights. How to make Israel safe?

The corrupt and incompetent regime in the USA is the opposite of helpful. Russia never pretended to be a helpful and unselfish nation. 

And yet somehow we seem to be headed for war.

I can't help but think of the social media that got right wing people to think a vote for the left would inevitably lead to war. Another "I told you so," won't help.

My spirituality says you don't harm other, you don't kill others such that I aspire to a plant based diet. War is out of the question.

My brain can analyse the situation, see where Iran is coming from, Israel is coming from, the region is coming from, the "super powers" coming from. What is the most helpful perspective? Fight war with everything you've got, wage peace as a puny individual? The Buddha couldn't spread enlightenment to prevent war in his time. Is it selfish to just take care of yourself. We're interconnected, puny, but maybe peace ripples can grow.

Is it possible for Iran to point to Israel's wrong?

Is it possible for Israel to develop their own ideas of safety, and preservation?

Can't the USA inveneve as they see it in world affairs, even if we're currently under a corrupt regime?

Can't Russia pursue it's interests vigorously, according to their traditions?

The playbook

Here's the playbook. 

Step 1. Announce some horrific policy attacking vulnerable populations, like that Transgender have to give their sex of birth, not their identity. Then try to implement it--he and his regime are wildly inept at how government works and they see that as a strength. 

Step 2: Get blocked by judges. He fights the block, a few steps perhaps or quits and gives up with the PR victory of terrorizing and imaging he's powerful. 

Step 3: Move onto more successful gifts and terrorizing. The terrorizing proves he's powerful and scary and if there's a money tree to shake, he'll shake it. TV channels and government give him money for considerations and to be left alone in his protection rackets. 

He's a sheep in wolves clothing, he's the emperor in no clothes, he's the little boy who can't persuade the military to like him. 

Protest Saturday

 Big protests Saturday (article)

Iran

In the tit for tat wars in the middle east, Israel struck at Iran yesterday, and today Iran is striking back at Israel. 

I came across this: "According to Hamas’s plan, after its attack on Israel, the remaining components of Iran’s axis of evil — Hamas in the West Bank, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and the Shiite militias in Syria, Iraq and Iran — would join in a regional war with the ultimate goal of destroying the one and only Jewish state." (NY Times by Benny Gantz)

I've read that Russia and its allies just want to sew the seeds of disunity in countries that aren't ruled by strong men, ie functional western democracies. They don't have to win asymmetrical wars, they just cut into the unity of open democratic states, drain off some of their unity and power by sewing chaos. Iran agreed to join the battle once Hamas launched the missles. 

"Iran’s religious leadership is devoted to exporting its fundamentalist ideology, driven by the pursuit of hegemony and captivated by the thought of its opponents’ violent subjugation." (op cit).

Every justification for war is flawed, because the outcome is mass death. Sometimes you have to fight back even if you don't want war, it takes more time to neutralize waring nations and undercut motivations for war. In a way war is the best problem solving given a situation, and you'd have to back thing up to different antecedents to create peace. 

The waring narratives casts Iran as already planning something, but we honestly have to look at a nation and what they do. What are the circumstances that undercut and stop war, end ongoing wars.

You can see the waring building up (Current Affairs). The article in Current Affairs by Nathan J. Robinson goes into deeper context about the waring articles in the Times, and asks some questions those articles can't answer. It brings in international law, completely ignored in the waring articles. Everyone in the UN wants to relax the situation except Israel and the USA. This is not good. I fear we are heading towards something that will spiral out of control and have negative consequences for everyone. 

California is pushing back

It's really quite amazing to see the government carrying out illegal and unconstitutional actions of ICE, and the people are risking everything to fight back. This is government against the people in real time, played out in video after video on social media. 

This is one of many sparks that started with protests that are ongoing, a chronic thorn in the side of the administration that is going to be toppled. Americans are rising up to fight this regime. This can only end bad for the regime. 

It's happening in NYC too (source)!

6/13/25 Ongoing. It's totally manufactured by the unreasonable, unconstitutional ICE actions, and escalated by the current regime. 

The regime has created this violence, but I like to see it out in the open, people were passively accepting the regime before. I don't think they've understood what they've started. 

ICE

ICE isn't about immigration or justice, it's about terrorizing people. Going into graduations, like this post says, going into schools, and hospitals, often deporting citizens. They decided birth and citizenship isn't enough, they're just deporting people willy nilly. And detention centers are terrorizing children. It's an abomination. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is really the the special forces of the current regime's terrorizing the citizens. 

The gestapo were the secret police under Nazism. The SS were special troops under Nazism. I'm not sure which ICE agents are more like. 

Joni Ernst

One of the ways the far right is advancing in dismantling our government that we're about to see how it supports the life of others. They're OK with the death of others, it's a death cult, among other things like white supremacist. It's a death and hate cult. Death to others, because of their hate. Wrapped up in pretending to talk about truth. 

Joni Ernst puts for the truth that we're all going to die, but what she's not saying is that we're OK with you dying if it means I get lower taxes. I would love to have a capitalist discussion on how the fact of death is hidden in our society and how that supports the illusion of infinite growth and the virtues of unfettered capitalism. That's not what she's doing, she's saying it's OK for the poor to die. 

Sneaky political evil wrapped in a bacon surrounding truth. They're changing things, pulling the rug out. And this is just one more chip in the destruction of the facade of America the compassionate. It's America the death cult, not compassionate, hate, racism, sexism, classism. 

This fits right in with the particular interpretation of the constitution, which they cherry pick, regarding guns.

Fits right in with the narrow concern for life that ends up killing the mothers of babies who were not going to live.

You know when I read about Freud's death instinct, I couldn't understand it. Now I can. People want to kill others. And it's sanctioned by the government. 

I'd also say the so-called "pro-life" stance regarding abortion is both a manic reparation and about controlling women's bodies. 

It turns out the top positions are based on the honor code, and presidents can find things optional

Like taking 400 billion dollar planes from Qatar. It thought that stuff was outlawed, but it turns out it was just a norm. Nobody is interested in enforcing any of the rule, I thought we had. 

I thought he got away with emoluments the last presidency, this term is just off the charts in comparison.

 

I figured out why American "Christians" are against taxation, even though it purports to save and help the same people Jesus would want helped. Because they only want to help Christians and they want credit for it, they're into the get something for the "charity". 

It's actually a personality thing, are you greedy and selfish, or are you open hearted and want to try and level the playing field some. Not clipping the wings of the great, but not let the super rich keep all their dough because they bought the policy that they hardly are taxed at all. Now greedy selfish people tend to create more build systems (of exploitation). I think the south had a problem with slavery because when it's hot out, the first thing that comes to my mind is, what's the least amount I can get away with? That tends to support the desire to exploit others. They complain that government is rigged, but they're the ones avoiding taxes, and exploiting the system. 

What's the solution to a president erasing the constitution? The people on the left saw the signs but nobody else saw them.

There needs to be stronger mechanisms to remove him. Like I get it that right wing people are OK with it, but there are quite a lot of right wing people who are against autocracy, white supremacy, ignoring court orders, suspension of due process, sending people to random countries. 

People say education, or better media. I mean, yea that would be great, but they didn't happen in this case.

I've studied Hitler and Germany on my own. I feel like in every show Nazis were the bad guys, and somehow we've drifted into this after even blanket media condemnation about Nazis in Germany. What kind of mental gymnastics do you have to go through to imagine this isn't a horrible threat to democracy? 

Conflict

Thinking about Israel gives me a headache most times, but I found a Reddit post interesting. It was a list of all the places in the Middle East where Jews were cleansed from. Does that give Israel the right to cleanse their space? 

Iran isn't even listed there, they kicked out 60K Jews in 1979 (Wikipedia).

Nothing gives anyone a right to kill anyone in my opinion, but I'm a peace lover, I'm not going to do any killing, but I'm not the only type of person in the world, and who knows how I develop under different circumstances. What do you do with all the people who feel the urgent need to protect their kind, however they define their kind, and how they define protect?

When they launched missiles and killed over a thousand people, given the history of Israel and the Jews on this planet, you might imagine that there would be a retaliation, considering it's within their own country. They don't have to go to war with another country, there is war within their country. They want to win the war. So they smash the opponent to smithereens. You can't say the Palestinians didn't bring it on themselves, if someone punches you, you try and stop their ability to punch you. I walk away, but some people want to root out the problem, and that might be killing them. 

They say an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind. Tit for tat is what you do ethically, with occasional positive and good thrown in to try and break the patterns. Patterns of kindness can be developed. What if there was a ritual of giving your different neighbors gifts?

The people who left Iran who were Jewish, some settled in Long Island New York. Their descendents are doing well. They live in a nice affluent neighborhood. Not sure you can say life is better outside of Iran, nobody wants to be forcefully moved, they've had to switch from Farsi to English. The problems of Long Island are still problems, no place is perfect. Great Neck and Kings Point isn't a bad place to live. I have a friend in Iran and life is hard there. Parents kill their daughter once a month, the women were hanging out with a man, and they decide to murder them. There's weird violence that confuses me, and I'm not sure I understand the country. Wanting to understand a country and culture is important to learning. I don't really know the other countries on that Reddit list of places where Jews have been driven out. You can't say things aren't connected if you can see this treatment of Jewish people leads to that treatment of Palestinian people. If you want peace, don't oppress or treat anyone poorly. One problem about groupthink is that you want revenge on people who hurt your group. Tit for tat. 

People rail in America about identity politics, but show me a place in the world where identity isn't a factor in a war? Identity can form around sexuality, race, ethnicity, religion, regionalism, even a neighborhood. Who are you and what is important to you?

So my question is if your people were driven out of 10 places, can you drive people out of one place that is the one place you want to feel safe, within the one country where being you is more than OK? It's OK to be Palestinian in Israel, as long as you don't launch bombs. There are many Palestinians in Israel who tend to Jewish kids, that do all sorts of positive and productive things for Israel without warning, but there is external support for making problems, and launching missiles, which exaggerates a problem. It is a kind of anti-semitism to have all these attack groups surrounding Israel. The Hezbollah in Lebanon. It's not official policy to allow them there, but they don't really have the will power to root them out of there, and if you somehow lost a family member, you might be radicalized, and plot against Israel. The endless war of tit for tat goes on forever. How do you make steps towards peace if there are literally many groups that keep launching bombs at you. Iran shoots of missiles and they don't even share a border with Israel. Everyone can justify violence, because look at history and x, y and z! How do yo justify peace, it looks weak, it looks like you're ignoring provocations! Which side am I talking about? That's exactly it, you can't really stop the war if you can't stop seeing how each side is being provoked. They are locked in a cycle of wars. If you're a soldier, a killer, you're going to just keep fighting. All these stories of people suffering in Gaza, who refused to leave, how can you blame them for feeling aggrieved. You erase the ability to launch missiles within Israel, but how to you erase the revenge someone wants to get for all the family they lost? I would just move, but people don't want to move. I'd rather live on Long Island, than live in a war zone. Supposedly there are a lot of Palestinians who live in Chile. 

You move to another country and there's the same problem. In NYC the Jews and the Palestinians are in conflict. My Afghan friend follows the plight of the Palestinians and the whole Muslim against Jews thing is fueled by the religious wars. My friend doesn't shot anyone, he lives his life, but there's a conflict inside him, maybe he passes it onto his kids, maybe they secularize. My stepfather is a secular Jew, I went to a passover once, went to camp Shalom, but I don't feel Jewish. I don't feel Baptist or Episcopalian either, I'm Buddhist. Now the Buddhist have a right to be upset at the Muslims who destroyed Nalanda, but then when great Islam empire was cut into in Iran, that is what kept Rumi moving eastward from the rampaging armies of Genghis Khan who was nominally Buddhist. Genghis Khan was Tengrism, a indigenous Shamanistic religion. When you look at the history of the world, you see religions rise and fall, wax and wane. The really good religions don't really sustain themselves long, everything has to get watered down and confused.

There's still Protestant versus Catholic in America. People want to purify a country, make it all just one thing and they think that will solve all the problems. Where is the country where everyone is supposed to get along? Is it America? Right now we have a white supremacist regime. No country stays the same, things always change. America was a quite stable example of a democracy, but it's rotted from within. The open society will always be susceptible to external and internal regression. At present the Jewish people feel safe enough from two sieg heils by Musk, to keep driving their Teslas. When I go for a walk in the Jewish neighborhood, I see lots of Teslas. They admire Musk, he is a great businessman. They admire the right, they want less taxes. A nice sweet father in the park, doesn't really think Trump killed 400k people with his inaction around Covid. "Maybe" he says skeptically. 

The divide between conservative and progressive in America has led to lost friendships for me. I haven't quit being friends with anyone because of their religion, but because of their politics. I even have lots of right wing friends, but Trump has brought out something that is unacceptable to me. I quit going to a AA meeting because 5 guys talked like Trump lovers before a meeting, and I just don't feel like expressing myself in recovery in front of Trump lovers.

I knew a Serbian girl who married a Serbian soldier to perpetuate the culture. In Wisconsin. America is remote enough to not have all out war between opposing sides, but we grow cultures that cling to past grudges. Many people let go of that stuff, let go of culture, just join the great materialism scramble of capitalism in secular America. That is a vapid choice, too, doesn't have the meaning of a deep culture. I wish I had more Buddhist culture. Today is Vesak Day, and I'm just going to go about my usual day, even though it is the high holiday of Buddhism. I'll meditated for 2 hours, and read some Dharma and blog about Buddhism, but I'm not connected to a sangha, and there is no gathering ritual I will take part of. I'll text my Buddhist friend in Iran. It's a strange old world. 

I don't have a religious culture, and a group that has people killed, and is at war with others. I have a vague affinity for other Buddhists, I don't like what China did to Tibet, but I don't hate Chinese people. I don't like the Muslims destroying Nalanda, but I have a Muslim friend, have had various Muslim friends. I had a Muslim friend from Sri Lanka, who moved away. 

Honestly comparing myself to the experience of an Israeli, I have to say I'm not sure I know what it's like. I know there are many Israeli and Jewish people who don't agree with what Netanyahu is doing. It's hardly a group of people who have a uniform way of thinking.

Today I meditate on compassion. Compassion might be an ingredient for peace. Not compassion for who, but a universal compassion. Maybe religion and spirituality were meant to be a private thing. Trying to present a public facing spirituality that can be used in the machines of war is just a capitalist creation. Any religion worth its salt would be all about peace.

Fighting the regime

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders have been raising lots of money for future elections, and going all over the west, campaigning against rule of the oligarchy. They both issue challenging statements that challenge the official versions.

Cory Booker broke the record for filibustering, previously held by someone trying to block civil rights legislation. 

Cory Booker has a fiery speech. (Reddit).

Maine Gov. Janet Mills beats Donald Trump, gets school meal funds restored while defending trans kids. She said she would see him in court. She did. She won. 

Heather Cox Richardson keeps writing about what is really going on. She's just a historian who reads the paper, and is functioning more as a journalist in real time, synthesizing the information coming out. 

JD Pritzker is fighting the regime as a governor in many ways, countering virtually every move. Protecting autism data, inviting Canadians to visit, criticizing enshitification in federal government with flunky cabinet choices. 

Annie Andrews is running against Lindsey Graham! (Source).

Mayor Michelle Wu of Boston signs an executive order demanding more transparency from ICE!

North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis won't run again because the regime is against him, he says his vote is more important. We need more politicians who are willing to sacrifice themselves for the right things. (Rolling Stone)

Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie has also drawn the regime's ire. 

Justice Jackson is writing history—one fearless dissent at a time. (source)

Found 7/23/25:

Capitalist enshitification list

My grocery store stocks items, one is popular, but there are 6 flavors. My daughter likes the white bag of potato chips, but there's 5 others. I like the amish kafir, but there's 5 other that are always in stock, and the amish runs out.

Netflix got your used to online streaming without commercials, and then cuts into password sharing and adds commercials. 

Food, retail, and other desserts. I live next to a grocery store, which is lucky, but it's not well stocked up on vegan products, it doesn't pay in my neighborhood. I walk 30 minutes to my ex's and her grocery store is filled with vegan expensive items. Richer neighborhood. You can get nooch there, not in mine. 

Apple used to be a great product. No so much any more, switching cords, not sending the bit that plugs into the wall, and on and on. 

Idiot voters through a reboot of the current regime was a good idea. 

Whatever election interference by purging voter registration and offering a million dollar prize, China and Russia's social media troll farms undermining America, I'm not aware of any election corruption yet. America voted for this regime.

He was impeached twice but it was followed through, there are enablers in government. They could write a law today that say no exporting prisoners, or they could have some noble lawyer sue the administration.

The supreme court could have allowed Colorado to take him off the ballot, and others could have followed. 

The biggest disappointment are 2 guys I know saying there's no difference in the corruption of Obama and the corruption of Trump. The otherwise nice retired school bus driver, who thinks they're hounding Trump with all his prosecution of real crimes. They don't see his convicted felonies are real. I can't wait for this fever dream to be over. 

I said Trump killed 400K by his inaction to covid to someone in the park and they could only just say maybe. I pointed out Musk's 2 sieg heils to a woman in the park, she said not to think about that. The Jewish people in my neighborhood who drive Teslas. 

Why does the right have moral clarity when it comes to the murder of abortion, but not the murder of inaction of federal government. Why are they so willing to stoke fear of communism then drive on roads we all own, have their banks protected, and trash taken away for the common good? 

Boring

It's boring to go over the current regime leader's rap sheet: Pedophelia, rapist, he's a felon, he killed people by his inaction with Covid, and not taking proper steps. He's destroying democracy, the rule of law, destroying the environment, sending immigrants and indeed citizens out of the country to concentration camps without due process. He should be in jail right now. He threatens every institution that he doesn't like, and he's enriching himself (remember the emoluments clause in the constitution?). He constantly lies, imagines himself as the pope, and he's the least spiritual, most transactional person ever. His white supremacy and othering of immigrants, destroying of democracy isn't a deal maker for some of his followers. It's old hat. The people who don't see him as any different than Democratic presidents is willful ignorance, and also a lie. That is crushes aware and woke people is a bonus to sadists and people who like harming others. He's not lowering taxes, he didn't fix egg prices or gas, and he blames Biden, lies or whatever for any attempt to make him accountable. The civics lesson everyone is learning has too high a price, and they're probably not learning it. The enablers in legislature who blocked rehiring veterans, the court not following through with it's decisions, and on and on. We now know how Hitler got away with what he did in real time, people are blind about the horrors of what he's doing until it happens to them, and then they get it, but it's too late, too little. He's a elderly ball of vengeance, and he's stocked his administration with dead eyed liars and crooks like himself. America's reputation has been ruined, American exceptionalism is over, Democracy died. The persecution of marginalized groups is horrible. The tanking of the economy, the killing of tourism. It's just boring at this point. We're heading into a depression where the only solution is socialism, he's creating the very thing he rails against, which is communism. 

The current regime

The current regime thinks his attacks on being held accountable to the constitution and laws of the USA--not nearly enough for what he's done--begging for 11k votes in Georgia would have gotten him locked up if I had any say about it, and his not calling off January 6th attempted insurrection, and funding it, also still has him needing to be held accountable, and all the emoluments from his first presidency, and all the corruption and graft he's been doing so far this term. 

He's pretty horrible, but now they're arresting judges, and saying ICE officers don't need warrants. He's the one who bends justice. He basically ran for office to avoid being held accountable. 

He's trying to get Ukraine to give up territory to Russia, and well, why? 

He supports the genocide in Israel.  I think Israel has the right to defend itself internally, but snipers picking off children is just too much. 

He's killed the economy, and tourism with his ways. 

The car guy lost a lot of imaginary money with stock dropping 71%, which is alright with me, hope it gets worse for him. Sieg heil twice and there are hopefully consequences.

It's hard to explain to the Egyptian roofer I was talking to the other day, who though Biden stole the election from Trump. 

Turning allies into enemies, everything he has done to extort money. It's just sickening. Corruption, harm, lies.

The legislature and judiciary and press that ennabled him will be held accountable. 

Today's political thought

Retrenchment and regression happen, progress isn't always a straight line forward. And the opposite contains some wisdom unfortunately. All the right wing people who believe this reset is healthy have to know it's not going to stay that way. The dialectic of the left and right means that things will swing back and forth. 

I'm so far left that it seems to me to swing from far right to center, and back. 

There are two ideas. Don't get along with government, government needs to be cut and limited. The other idea is that we should redistribute money through taxation and programs, and ameliorate some of the excesses of capitalism. We should promote the common good through healthcare, education, transportation, infrastructure, and even defense and foreign policy. 

I do think America gets over it's skis with ideas of exceptionalism. The Marshall Plan was a good thing to do, in our own best interest. 

Clearly what is going on in America is very destructive at the moment. After Woodrow Wilson came FDR, and his years as presidents created the Reagan voters and over and over again. I don't know if I'll see the end of this great depression or not, I'm getting older. I don't know if I'll see the booming 90's again, seems unlikely. 

Humans are stupid and limited and selfish and short sighted, and can be amazingly spiritual, kind, generous, wise and insightful. Their politics reflect that. 

I don't mean to be blase and abstract about all the people dying. It's hard to imagine people straight up dying because of this regime but it's happening. From the loss of due process to life giving benefit cuts, to withholding health care, and on and on. Supporting the genocide in Gaza, to shifting to voting with Russia in the UN. 

I keep coming back to the 2 humans who said to me they don't notice a difference between Obama and Trump. So willfully ignorant and proud of it. 

Today's political thoughts

America has been lucky, in the presidents in my lifetime. Lyndon Johnson was president when I was born, then Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, GHW Bush, Clinton, GW Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden, Trump.

None were not as for sale, venial flim flam men, soft shoe shufflers as the current regime, wannabe gangsters, running illegal protection rackets. I wish the legislature, courts, press and people would hold him more accountable. Or even a little accountable. 

He's running a protection racket, from himself. Threat, shake the money tree, see who pays for protection. In a way it's amazing the idealistic rhetoric. 

I've never really believed in exceptionalism, that was too boastful and not humble. You get hubris. Hubris is over arching pride that leads to your downfall. 

Humility, being right sized, isn't built into the American ethos, but as we mature and find our place in the world, it would behove us to find some. Most people didn't buy into America's hype, they witness too much to the contrary. 

American politics is what we create, how we react, and what we discover our virtues and values to be. I pretty much ignored politics, always leaning left and voting Democrat. I voted for a Republican sheriff in Madison because I went to school with his son, that's the only Republican I voted for, in my memory. My memory isn't that great, life can be long and I've always struggled to cope with the flurry of information out there. 

Democrats aren't perfect, and some people see them be venial for sale politicians like the Republicans and see no difference, but I see a huge difference. That try not to be so corrupt, and resign quicker. To deny the difference is a radical political stance, two neighbors have said that to me. These are the kind of people who feel like Trump telling the truth about his grifting is somehow noble. They feel Trump is being persecuted for his politics, instead of him just straight up being a criminal and being held accountable. 

I'm OK with more people choosing not to vote, that enlarges my vote, but voter suppression is evil, and I really hope the courts prevent Trump from doing what he hopes to do by making voting harder. 

It's hard to know which is the distraction grift in this house of cards, the rope a dope, the gish gallop. 

To me Jasmine Crockett, Cory Booker and AOC are stepping up the most to fight this nonsense.  

Hands off! Huge protests

Over 5 million people! 5.2 is highest I’ve seen.

Massive turnout in NYC and in many cities around the USA to protest harm. Hands off!

Evolving analysis

 

The shock doctrine is the idea that throwing the USA into turmoil will benefit the hyper rich, and make the workers more willing to be exploited. 

The Atlantic has an article about how people try to ideologically justify this turmoil. 

People balk at giving Trump sophisticated ideas, he's a dolt, a dummy. He's a toddler trapped in the genital phase. 

One thing I've noticed, his autocratic style, he doesn't feel like explaining, justifying or even persuading the people, he just wants to do what he wants to do. His anti-social ways are about cutting corners and not following the rules. He's not excited unless he's getting away with something. He's still angry at his father. 

It's really hard for me to read about all the business that are being ruined, lives, and when the economy goes down, aside from ruining things, 

Protests all over the USA are voicing the urge not to just do things for the oligarchy. 

Mayoral race NYC

Working Families endorsed 4 candidates (Gothamist): Adrienne Adams, Brad Lander, Zohran Mamdani and Zellnor Myrie.

Zohran Mamdani (33) was born in Uganda, to Indian parents. Move to Cape Town when he was 5. His mother is a filmmaker (1991) film Mississippi Masala, starring Denzel Washington and 2016 Disney film Queen of Katwe) and his father is an academic at Columbia, who studies colonialism, was expelled from Uganda under the dictator Idi Amin. He's from Queens, he's in the State Assembly. Moved to NYC when he was 7. Went to Bronx Science, then Bowdoin College in Maine with a bachelors in African studies. Mamdani worked as a prevention counselor and cricketer, and attempted a career in hip hop (video). He worked on a few political campaigns and then ran himself. His district includes Astoria and Long Island City. 

Quoting articles:

Mother Jones Article (3/27/25): He's fundraising well so far. Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran political strategist based in New York City, had a simple explanation for Mamdani’s emergence as the leading progressive contender: “He’s not boring! He’s handsome, articulate, and his ideas are very romantic and interesting.” 

The city’s Democratic Socialists of America chapter has added 1,500 members—about a quarter increase—since last October, when it endorsed Mamdani. “We’re not only winning elections with downwardly mobile college-educated people,” said Grace Mausser, co-chair of the local chapter. “We’re becoming more diverse.” 

His theory is that the saliency of universal services will win over working-class voters, particularly those who have become disillusioned by the Democratic party. Whether or not he succeeds, Mamdani’s candidacy is a test of the widespread appeal of a left-wing economic populist platform, at a time when Democrats desperately need to find a better message. 

He has steadfastly condemned Israel’s war on Gaza, even as pro-Israel PACs have spent millions to sink progressive candidates nationwide. Mamdani likes to joke that, as a Muslim and a socialist, he is “no stranger to bad PR.”

Mamdani brought that penchant for showmanship to the state Assembly after being elected in 2020, ousting a popular incumbent. As a legislator, Mamdani was skilled at winning over powerful allies. In 2021, he helped the taxi drivers’ union win debt relief, with the backing of New York Sen. Chuck Schumer. When union members went on a hunger strike to try to force a deal, Mamdani fasted alongside them all 15 days.

...a recent poll shows Mamdani 10 points ahead of the next progressive candidate, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander.

Politico (3/22/25): ...some recent polling even has him in second place in the crowded field of 11-plus candidates — behind only former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a dynastic politician who is the prohibitive favorite to win the Democratic primary in June.

Bernie Sanders playbook: Pick a handful of straightforward economic proposals that would impact the daily lives of regular people and repeat, repeat, repeat. Attendees of a Bernie rally are primed to chant Medicare for All before they even get there. Now, thanks to his social-media savvy outreach, Mamdani draws crowds ready to sing along to his own greatest hits.

Thoughts: The idea that he can't win is based in a kind of assumption about how left a candidate can win. I don't actually know, and nobody really knows, how left a candidate can win. When he doesn't win, they'll say I told you so, but is it really true that there's a too left candidate that can't win, or they just don't communicate well in the campaign, or money overwhelms them from the other side, which has a moneyed interest in them not winning. I'm not convinced in the too left to win argument. Obviously I'm too left myself.

Regarding Cuomo who is leading: He wouldn't make my top 5. The reason he resigned is the reason he shouldn't run again. People can change, but they don't have the right to run for government. His name recognition gives him a huge advantage. I basically don't think he deserves to win because of name recognition, but it's a real factor in reality, but not why I would vote for him. (NPR article on resignation.)

Same with Eric Adams. He's running as an independent because the Democratic party doesn't want him to run under their ticket. I guess he doesn't have enough power in the party to over-ride them. I like that. I would never vote for him. He didn't make my top 5 last time. He's too corrupt, should be in jail, it's only sucking up to Trump that got him off the hook--another element of his corruption. 

Probably it will be a fight between Adams and Cuomo and the Republican, maybe Curtis Sliwa. Adams wasn't on my top 5 and he won, so thinking my opposite instincts will be right. 

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Adrienne Adams is a 64 year old Speaker of the New York City Council. Her district includes the Queens borough neighborhoods of Jamaica, Rochdale Village, Richmond Hill and South Ozone Park. I'm sure she would be fine. She seems like the uninteresting type of person we need to just get things done. I'll probably include her in my 5 for the democratic primary. 

My 9 year old daughter wants to vote for Jessica Ramos based on looks and gender. She also liked Adrienne Adams. She favors women. Ramos is a 38 year old state senator who represents Corona, Elmhurst, East Elmhurst, and Jackson Heights. She was born at Elmhurst Hospital and grew up in Astoria. She has Colombian heritage. She quit Hofstra to work for New York City Council Member Hiram Monserrate. I'm not sure why she didn't get the Working Families endorsement. She's had high level communications jobs, and is journalists go to hispanic politician. Zohran Mamdani recommends everyone else on my list but her. 

Brad Lander is the 55 year old Comptroller for NYC.  He grew up in St. Louis in a Jewish family. He got a masters degree in anthropology in London, and urban planning from Pratt. He is described as a progressive. He's been on the city council. Seems like a competent government worker, he's probably going to make my top 5 for the democratic primary.

Lander is sort of suring in a way (Reddit).

Zellnor Myrie is a 38 year old state senator representing Brooklyn. He was born in Brooklyn to parents who were born in Costa Rica. He went to Fordham and got a masters in urban studies. He went to Cornell Law School. Myrie proposed to increase housing supply in New York City by 700,000 homes by allowing more housing in neighborhoods with stringent zoning rules, in order to alleviate the housing shortage in the city. He's another candidate to consider for top 5. 

My 5: Zohran Mamdani, Brad Lander, Adrienne Adams, Zellnor Myrie, Jessica Ramos

So I wrote this above summary on 4/3/25, and thought I would follow these people in the news to see how things go and add in information. The election is on November 4, 2025, but the primary is more interesting to me on June 24, 2025, that's less than 3 months to pay attention.

6/5/25 ranking: Zohran Mamdani, Brad Lander, Adrienne Adams, Zellnor Myrie, Jessica Ramos