Hi everyone!
Ok, so socialist State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani hasn't officially been declared the winner of the New York City Democratic mayoral primary just yet, but his top contender former Governor Andrew Cuomo conceded just before 10:30 pm last night. The rest is merely a formality. Mamdani, the Ugandan-born-and-raised rep from Queens, who moved to the US with his parents at the age of 7 and touts absurd plans like city-run grocery stores, free buses, and a rent freeze, came in with just over 43% of the vote in the first round of ranked-choice voting.
We were watching the results roll in on Timcast IRL last night, and three of us, both former and current New Yorkers, looked on with a bit of shock as district after district gave up their votes for the man who plans to replace cops on some beats with the Department of Community Safety which is meant to "prevent crime before it happens." He plans to take over "vacant commercial units" to create medical outposts and "increase funding to hate violence prevention programs by 800%."
Somehow I don't think that's gonna get the job done. Neither is raising the minimum wage to $30 an hour, which for full-time work is $62,400 annuallyâimagine if that was your starting pay for your first minimum wage job. (I don't think I started earning that much until my mid-30s after almost 20 years in the workforce, and I was stoked).
In addition to all of his really bad plans for New York City, he's got an agenda to "Trump-proof" the city, which he says he will achieve by "strengthening our sanctuary city apparatus: getting ICE out of all City facilities and ending any cooperation, increasing legal support, and protecting all personal data. Heâll make NYC an LGBTQIA+ sanctuary city and protect reproductive rights." And who does he intend to have pay for all these big ideas? You guessed it: the 1%. He's got a plan to raise the corporate tax rate and the tax on those who earn over $1 million annuallyâthis in a city where the median income is $80,000. There are about 350,000 millionaires in NYC by the last count, and they don't need to stay there.
Mamdani doesn't have it all sewn up. In November, he'll face current, scandal-plagued NYC Mayor Eric Adams, GOP nominee and head of the Guardian Angels Curtis Sliwa, and perhaps Andrew Cuomo if he decides to keep running. Sliwa won the Republican primary on Tuesday night in large part because he ran uncontested. He's got 16 cats. Mob boss John Gotti tried to take him out in 1992 though neither he nor his associates were convicted. Sliwa's been on radio since 1990 and ran for mayor in 2021. He seems like a pretty swell guy and everything, but I don't know why the GOP seems to have abandoned New York.
Rudy Giuliani was the best mayor the City of New York ever had and he was a Republican. Michael Bloomberg, who followed Giuliani's tenure in what was a stunning one-two punch for the prosperity and livability of the city, started out as a Republican, too. So why have there been no serious GOP contenders since?
The 2024 Democrat ballot was a clown show. Disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo, and current Mayor Eric Adams who has been plagued with corruption scandals, both could go down against personable but literal crazed socialist Zohran Mamdani, who is running on a platform of increasing crime and bankrupting the city. He won't tell you that outright, but one look at his platform and it's plain to see that's his plan.
Why has the NY GOP given up on the city so nice they named it twice?
CNN's been pounding the drums of their big story, out yesterday from the very first Hunter Biden laptop denier Natasha Bertrand, that the 14 30,000 pound bombs did not actually take out Iran's nuclear facilities. They cited unnamed sources, who the White House said were "low-level losers," who said that a draft preliminary report said that the destruction was not as great as either was anticipated or reported by the Trump administration.
Even ahead of their big bombshell, which also did not have the kind of destructive power they were hoping for, they were on air all night talking about how the attack fell short of goals. And there's every reason to believe that the intelligence assessment is accurate, that the tonnage of the ordinance wasn't enough to blast through the mountains to fully destroy the facilities. That's why Iran built them under mountains in the first place. And they reportedly moved out their 60% or so enriched uranium ahead of the strike.
The White House didn't like that it was leaked, the Pentagon didn't like that it was leaked, and both of them came out strong in support of the military's Saturday night bombing campaign against Iran's nuclear facilities. We covered CNN's report yesterday at The Post Millennial and we included their reporting as well as the comments from the White House. Even so, CNN reached out to me (and probably everyone else) late last night asking for the addition of their comment: "CNN stands by our thorough reporting on an early intelligence assessment of the recent strikes on Iranâs nuclear facilities, which has since been confirmed by other news organizations. The White House has acknowledged the existence of the assessment, and their statement is included in our story."
Our report didn't deny the report's existence. We quoted the same information that was in the CNN report as well as some additional information, so why do they think it needs this extra backup? Congress is set to get some classified briefings on the mission, which a few are complaining about because those briefings have been delayed. Per the War Powers Act of 1973, Congress is supposed to be briefed within 48 hours if the President takes some military action without first getting Congressional approval.
CNN said Iran's nuclear program has only been pushed back by a few months or so. Trump said Iran will never get a nuclear program back after this. Maybe the plan is more bombs. Maybe the plan is to wait and see. Either way, for both NYC and Iran, we're just waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Here's what's on my desk today:
EXCLUSIVE: Inside of Portland Antifaâs ICE facility occupationâindividuals seen delivering supplies, riot gear
More than 20 arrests have been made during the ongoing occupation for a variety of offenses.
Brazilian hiker falls into crater of active volcano in Indonesia, rescue efforts hampered by unstable conditions
âWhile Juliana is NEEDING HELP! We donât know the state of her health! She still has no water, food or warm clothes for three days!â
Miss North Florida stripped of crown over refusal to support men in womenâs beauty pageant
âI may no longer hold the Miss North Florida title, but I havenât lost my voice. And I will continue to use it â not in anger, but in truth, grace, and courage.â
Jasmine Crockett says sheâs âsupposed to make the f*cking decisionâ to go to war
Crockett said that here power âcomes from the Constitution. And it is clear that I have power. And somehow, because we got a thug sitting in the White House, he has decided to ignore my power.â