Excellent advice. People need joy to feel energized, and you need energy to fight. So of course the enemies of democracy want you depressed and hopeless.
Two things give me particular hope: the first, as Roy mentions, is that NYC voters are a certain breed, with an extremely keen nose for self-serving bullshit. They knew money was pouring in for Cuomo and knew it was an attempt to railroad them, and they responded with their middle finger.
Second, the most obvious worst people in the world are trying to stop Mamdani. And they are visibly breaking a sweat while doing it. Yes, NY is the biggest city in the country, and yes, it has a population larger than 38 of the U.S. states. But it's still a mayor's race with primarily local impact, at least in theory. So the fact Mamdani has inspired not just local but nationwide and even international panic among the Right means that his candidacy is onto something that worries them.
Agreed re the first paragraph, tend to disagree with the second. Not sure your assessment of the demographics of D primary voters is correct. They chose then elected Eric Adams so I wouldn't tend to see them as a cohort that sees through establishment bullshit. But who knows, maybe you're right...
I'd argue that the same RCV that helped Mamdani hurt Adams' opponents. That was more a case of divide and conquer. This time, Lander and others learned that coalescing behind the guy with the best shot pays off.
The thing I really like about RCV is how it rewards normal people with the normal amount of cooperativeness that all non-psychopaths have. Sure, Lander and Mamdani could come to an agreement to cross-endorse, it's the sensible thing to do. Now imagine Adams and Cuomo coming to the same kind of agreement.
From what I was hearing the non-Cuomo-Adams people were saying fill your ballot with people other than Cuomo and Adams. Also, Mamdani easily won the first choice ballots, probably he will win the lesser choices votes eventually
I think the right fills with fear when a particularly adept candidate shows up on our side because their fearless leader somehow manages to step on his (publicly acknowledged and judged by an expert) tiny dick several times a day.
The right fills with fear at any suggestion that there is an alternative to unfettered, soul-crushing capitalism. Alleviating even the smallest of miseries might give the masses ideas, y’know?
Whoa! The hospital food must be pretty bad to not only get a post today but one so pissy...
Anyway, the good and bad re Mamdani:
The good: Ass I keep saying and have been saying even before Tuesday, we need a shit ton of progressives and lefties running for office. Should be obvious but... At the least, it's a zillion voices heard. And maybe some even get elected, maybe a lot do, maybe even enough. The only other choice is to keep on ceding power to the corporate tools and puppets.
The bad: Odds are, if elected he'll disappoint and/or be portrayed as a failure by the media.
Overall: Tuesday was the stuff of legitimate hope.
Fun fact/reminder re the Times: Little over half the subscribers receive news stuff. So, you know, it's not what it's used to be or how the rest of the establishment media portray it. On the important stuff, it's like the others--establishment propagandists.
Which is to say overall, who gives a fuck about the bullshit the Times pushes?
The uplifting joy of Kamala's nomination was immediately squashed by the so-called Prestige Press on a national level, but if I recall there were pockets of heroic positivity from place to place. Not all heroes wear capes, but they are all hopeful.
It's hard now to remember what a rock star she was when Biden stepped down. And she came *this* close to winning, and if she had, that's how we'd see the story: An unimpeded rise from success to success. But she lost, so now we must decide retroactively that she was a boring centrist who inspired no voters whatsoever.
Something I've noticed about the reactionary/fascist movement in this country is their tendency to completely lose their s^&t over the slightest indication that things aren't going exactly to plan. They try to project toughness and certainty, but scream like someone just cut off their feet over something like a guy winning a primary to be mayor of a city that most of them claim to heartily despise. Trump and his sycophants' fury over facts undercutting his absurd assertions about Iran's nuclear program is another example. As they French like to say (in French), they really don't get along well with reality.
Yeah, it’s astounding to me that Tubby, sitting at the pinnacle of power, has delusions of grandeur. “I’m tough! I’m smart! I deserve a Nobel prize! I should be the Pope! All glory to MEEE!”
I enjoyed Bondi acting all surprised at a question about masked government agents. "Is that happening? Had not heard of that, please send me details, thanks."
I've said before, probably to the point of tiresomeness, that Gary Cooper was an impossible standard to live up to. Of course millions of American men felt liberated when offered a role model that set the bar WAAAY lower than that.
So true, I have to wonder: If things not going to plan is not to your liking, why on earth would you pick Donald J. Trump, a man who can't walk to the shitter without multiple detours and reversals along the way?
Are they dosing you with Hopium? I'm still worried that Cuomo will run as an independent and the usual suspects will flood the zone with cash and propaganda.
And his *best* reason for doing so was that he didn’t want to (sure, Jan), but Cuomo is such a vindictive asshole, he donated to curry favor. Even his excuses are putrid.
I’m seeing some concern trolls still thumb-sucking about “he should respond better to [disingenuous issue]. Why, he didn’t even denounce Hamas! Nor did he respond to my concerns about when he’ll stop beating his wife! I fear his voters are in for a disappointment, so they should pre-emptively start now!”
Fk all that. And fk anyone platforming that dispiriting, disingenuous bullsh!t.
(Fortunately I’m not in the New York metro area and don’t have to endure the news-sluice of defamatory BS. We get enough of that by being in the Iowa TV market for political ads, thank you very much!)
"(Fortunately I’m not in the New York metro area and don’t have to endure the news-sluice of defamatory BS. We get enough of that by being in the Iowa TV market for political ads, thank you very much!)"
Republicans here in the Confederate States have been running against AOC and Pelosi for *years* even in local races. Mamdani is about to be used for purposes completely out of his control.
We see that stuff too. Next, well-meaning people like Carville, Frum, Brooks, et al. will counsel Dems not to run anyone, anywhere, for any office, lest the Republicans unfairly portray them as extremist Commie Hamas types.
Out and about with my sister yesterday, we thought we'd better break for lunch. We pick a neighborhood Chinese place. Mostly white geezers when we walk in, with Chinese parties trickling in later.
Two women, more elderly than us, are in the booth directly across the aisle. One's an old hand, who raves to her newbie friend about the eggplant stuffed with shrimp, and newbie orders the same. While they wait, the OH starts on a saga about eye treatment, including her Rx for 2 kinds of drops. Sister gives me a look, and I hold up 3 fingers, for the different drops the retina docs currently have me on.
At some point, OH switches to: "I hope Trump cleans it out! 90% of the professors are communists!" This refers to that hotbed of Marxist-Leninism, the University of Michigan, Inc. OH continues with a rant about how many students are Chinese--as the sister and I watch the Chinese-American waitress heading toward that booth with the beloved eggplant dish. Being in our bubble of relative sanity, we don't routinely hear much of this first-hand. But one can never misunderestimate the fellow Americans lacking in cognitive dissonance.
Yes, they'll try anything and everything. I'm just saying (and I guess I could have just said, but then the newsletter would be too short) that they can't take your hope, and everything it really can achieve including victory, unless you let them.
I just flashed back to the Omaha mayoral race a few weeks ago, the Republican incumbent pushed HARD on the anti-trans bullshit, and it completely fell flat with the voters. This one seems like an encouraging sign of how ineffective (at least in NYC) the "antisemitism" button is. They've got a limited set of buttons they can push, and the harder they push them, it's natural to expect some diminution of effect over time. Oh, except for the racism button, of course. That one's still goin' strong.
The best argument for optimism I’ve heard these days. Could the qualities that allow New Yorkers, even decades after they’ve moved away, to discern the difference between compassion and whatever it is that motivates rich assholes seep into a majority of other Americans, stripping the sheep’s clothing off the Trumps and Musks and Thiels and Zuckerbergs and Bezoses? Could the next election cycle find our fellow citizens voting for their own interests - and their neighbors of every color and creed - and against the fascists who want to substitute oligarchy for democracy? If the Pope can tell Trump and Vance to fuck straight off, maybe the not-infallibles can, too.
One of the most dependable and enduring features of American political life over the last half-century is that any candidate who murmurs anything even vaguely resembling "ya know, maybe we should help those who need help" is instantly proclaimed to be an ultra-far Left Stalinist extremist. The fact that the mainstream media will echo this endlessly is one of the things that has brought us to our current state. (Even if they don't print headlines proclaiming Mamdani as the second coming of Stalin, they'll publish article after article crammed with quotes from wealthy assholes complaining that having to pay even $10 more a year in taxes to fund, say, Head Start is confiscatory.)
Also a robot, replacing the real Joe Biden when he died of Covid (which doesn't actually kill anyone, just the vaccines kill people) A senile robot, also a criminal mastermind. Any questions?
"the mainstream media will echo this endlessly" yeah weird ain't it: it's like when a friend imitates an absent mutual acquaintance and you can tell without being told who it is. If you imagine that hopeless POV and tone of voice, you can immediately recognize it as that of our Prestige Press.
A first-class ticket to Paris is probably thousands of dollars one-way, how much could it cost to send someone to Mars? And who would pay it? If the rich assholes are paying their own way, welcome to Mars: A planet of 100 billionaires with a thousand robots to cook their food and wipe their asses. Sounds like fun, huh? OTOH if they're expecting my TAX DOLLARS to go to their Adventure in the Off-World Colonies, I'm goin' all J6 on their asses.
That "failure is impossible" is exactly right. Instances of success and knowing hope are reminders to keep on.
Some of my takeaways from the campaign were about Mamdami's great talent for it. And on a city-wide scale, it was so reminiscent of AOC's first race. The door-knocking and the shoe leather; in this case, Zohran and crew did a walk across the length of Manhattan. In the end, both campaigns delivering a KO to an Establishment shoe-in.
And how about that Brad Lander? His selfless collaboration with Zohran. He's arrested by DHS goons and continues to show up at immigration court. I await his new roles in great things for NYC and, I hope, beyond. He's another example of a true public servant. We need to remember they exist, and that we deserve to have them everywhere.
"On no account let them take your hope from you — especially not on the grounds that having hope may leave you disappointed, because we are neither children nor emotionally disabled and we know that while not every campaign is a success, failure is impossible."
Man, I wish I had learned this 50 years ago. Life is full of disappointments. It hurts and then you get over it. Don't live your life trying to avoid disappointment. Don't be afraid to hope for the best because you're afraid you'll be disappointed.
I think we probably all saw Bill Ackman's tweets progressing through the valley of the shadow of having to pony up for all-day kindergarten. Hopefully that plutocrat money goes straight to those ineffectual Democratic consultants who claim to know the electorate so well.
But I'm worried about the DOJ. They kept Adam's alive politically and did it blatantly. Trump can gut Mamdami's campaign with harassment lawsuits, tax fraud investigations, hate-crime charges, taking him out both with PR and using lawfare to drain his funds. I don't know whether they're bureaucratically capable of that kind of attack, but they're morally capable for sure.
I've had 2 (now blocked) pro-Israel 'friends'-by-two-degrees-separation on social media go insane on me regarding the NYC outcome like I was solely responsible. Some wild, all-caps screaming and YOU'LL BE SORRY WHEN SHARIA LAW COMES... I find this so upsetting and alarming. Why can't we just have normal elections anymore? Everything has to be amped up to 9,000 watts all the time. Oy vey.
I know I'm emotionally damaged (it's my secret weapon!) and you probably don't want the drama (don't blame you!) but the time has come to let people, including one's friends, know when they've been turned into buffoons and rage clowns and made impossible to take seriously. They probably won't learn but you have to offer them the chance.
It's absolutely in our best interests to just let go of people who don't/won't/can't get it, whether it's a situation like this, or just other life related things. As I've thought about someone I've known for roughly 47 years who I've just stopped communicating with: "Your empathy module is in very bad shape (if it exists at all), and I don't like what you're serving up any more."
Excellent advice. People need joy to feel energized, and you need energy to fight. So of course the enemies of democracy want you depressed and hopeless.
Two things give me particular hope: the first, as Roy mentions, is that NYC voters are a certain breed, with an extremely keen nose for self-serving bullshit. They knew money was pouring in for Cuomo and knew it was an attempt to railroad them, and they responded with their middle finger.
Second, the most obvious worst people in the world are trying to stop Mamdani. And they are visibly breaking a sweat while doing it. Yes, NY is the biggest city in the country, and yes, it has a population larger than 38 of the U.S. states. But it's still a mayor's race with primarily local impact, at least in theory. So the fact Mamdani has inspired not just local but nationwide and even international panic among the Right means that his candidacy is onto something that worries them.
Agreed re the first paragraph, tend to disagree with the second. Not sure your assessment of the demographics of D primary voters is correct. They chose then elected Eric Adams so I wouldn't tend to see them as a cohort that sees through establishment bullshit. But who knows, maybe you're right...
I'd argue that the same RCV that helped Mamdani hurt Adams' opponents. That was more a case of divide and conquer. This time, Lander and others learned that coalescing behind the guy with the best shot pays off.
Gaming out RCV and whether it’s a net positive or negative gives me a headache but at the moment, I’ll go with positive.
And yes, the two Hispanic women in 2021 did enough vote splitting to let Adams get nomination.
Thus far there are no RCV results
Next week.
Curious how many actual votes were cast.
About 980,000. I would guess Zohran will get close to 600,000 after RCV
eta: it was more like 993,500
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_New_York_City_mayoral_election#Democratic_primary
The thing I really like about RCV is how it rewards normal people with the normal amount of cooperativeness that all non-psychopaths have. Sure, Lander and Mamdani could come to an agreement to cross-endorse, it's the sensible thing to do. Now imagine Adams and Cuomo coming to the same kind of agreement.
The November election is FPTP, and Adams dropped out of the Dem primary a while ago
Good to know, I'm hoping Adams and Cuomo split the "Not Mamdani" vote, if only we could persuade Bloomberg and Giuliani to run too.
From what I was hearing the non-Cuomo-Adams people were saying fill your ballot with people other than Cuomo and Adams. Also, Mamdani easily won the first choice ballots, probably he will win the lesser choices votes eventually
Yes, I think that's why Cuomo conceded early, he knew things wouldn't get better for him in the later rounds.
I think the right fills with fear when a particularly adept candidate shows up on our side because their fearless leader somehow manages to step on his (publicly acknowledged and judged by an expert) tiny dick several times a day.
The right fills with fear at any suggestion that there is an alternative to unfettered, soul-crushing capitalism. Alleviating even the smallest of miseries might give the masses ideas, y’know?
And they're right!
Whoa! The hospital food must be pretty bad to not only get a post today but one so pissy...
Anyway, the good and bad re Mamdani:
The good: Ass I keep saying and have been saying even before Tuesday, we need a shit ton of progressives and lefties running for office. Should be obvious but... At the least, it's a zillion voices heard. And maybe some even get elected, maybe a lot do, maybe even enough. The only other choice is to keep on ceding power to the corporate tools and puppets.
The bad: Odds are, if elected he'll disappoint and/or be portrayed as a failure by the media.
Overall: Tuesday was the stuff of legitimate hope.
Fun fact/reminder re the Times: Little over half the subscribers receive news stuff. So, you know, it's not what it's used to be or how the rest of the establishment media portray it. On the important stuff, it's like the others--establishment propagandists.
Which is to say overall, who gives a fuck about the bullshit the Times pushes?
I, for one, would like to punch the New York Times in the nuts.
I guess this isn't practical.
If it isn't practical, then practice makes perfect…
The NYT and most "media" these days definitely has some prominent nuts. Where are the balls? We need more kicking!
The Nuts v Balls theory. I like it!
Next up: The world can be divided into dicks, pussies and assholes.
Trinary!
What about taints?
You can't miss! They're chock full o' nuts!
Might kicking Schulzberger in the crotch be a place to start?
(Y'all notice I'm not assuming he has testicles...)
The uplifting joy of Kamala's nomination was immediately squashed by the so-called Prestige Press on a national level, but if I recall there were pockets of heroic positivity from place to place. Not all heroes wear capes, but they are all hopeful.
Thanks for the heroism in print!
It's hard now to remember what a rock star she was when Biden stepped down. And she came *this* close to winning, and if she had, that's how we'd see the story: An unimpeded rise from success to success. But she lost, so now we must decide retroactively that she was a boring centrist who inspired no voters whatsoever.
Something I've noticed about the reactionary/fascist movement in this country is their tendency to completely lose their s^&t over the slightest indication that things aren't going exactly to plan. They try to project toughness and certainty, but scream like someone just cut off their feet over something like a guy winning a primary to be mayor of a city that most of them claim to heartily despise. Trump and his sycophants' fury over facts undercutting his absurd assertions about Iran's nuclear program is another example. As they French like to say (in French), they really don't get along well with reality.
So bizarre that the most thin-skinned Man Baby in all the world is considered by so many a tough guy and avatar of the One True Masculinity.
Yeah, it’s astounding to me that Tubby, sitting at the pinnacle of power, has delusions of grandeur. “I’m tough! I’m smart! I deserve a Nobel prize! I should be the Pope! All glory to MEEE!”
Well, look at the males who admire him
The females who admire him aren't any better, from Noem, McMahon and Bondi on down to the common clay.
I enjoyed Bondi acting all surprised at a question about masked government agents. "Is that happening? Had not heard of that, please send me details, thanks."
I've said before, probably to the point of tiresomeness, that Gary Cooper was an impossible standard to live up to. Of course millions of American men felt liberated when offered a role model that set the bar WAAAY lower than that.
And they no longer have to dress up like a million-dollar trooper, trying hard to look like Gary Cooper! (Super-duper!)
Upvoted for subtle but highly appropriate TACO reference!
Ooh, dots connected!
(Yeah, it's not everyone that can have a longtime affair with a movie starlet while being married to the daughter of the chair of the NYSE.)
New York real estate developer would seem to be out of reach too, but his personal behavior is well within the reach of any toddler.
He's not so hard to live up to. You just have to shut up every once in a while. (Which is why for some guys it's impossible.)
Who would have guessed that the hard part of "Strong, silent type" would be the "silent" part?
2 marks.
So true, I have to wonder: If things not going to plan is not to your liking, why on earth would you pick Donald J. Trump, a man who can't walk to the shitter without multiple detours and reversals along the way?
Because then every incompetent detour, reversal, and fk-up can be “correct”—in a Pee-Wee Herman “I MEANT TO DO THAT!” sort of way?
It must be exhausting, trying to follow along. Every day a new lie to memorize, I wonder why anyone not being paid would make the effort.
It implies the *actual* path of history is not what they thought it was.
Are they dosing you with Hopium? I'm still worried that Cuomo will run as an independent and the usual suspects will flood the zone with cash and propaganda.
Didn’t they already flood the zone? Maybe more and harder and longer will work for them, I don’t know. But it could also be a big exploding cigar.
Yeah, that NYT story could be headlined "Asshole who blew $250k on Cuomo prepares to blow $250k on Adams"
And his *best* reason for doing so was that he didn’t want to (sure, Jan), but Cuomo is such a vindictive asshole, he donated to curry favor. Even his excuses are putrid.
"I spend large sums of money, but it brings me no pleasure."
Cry me a river, buddy.
You could ALMOST buy a house in Madison for that kind of money (Cuomo and Adams combined) and it all just went pffft.
Better than paying that $250k in taxes, apparently! 🤪
I’m seeing some concern trolls still thumb-sucking about “he should respond better to [disingenuous issue]. Why, he didn’t even denounce Hamas! Nor did he respond to my concerns about when he’ll stop beating his wife! I fear his voters are in for a disappointment, so they should pre-emptively start now!”
Fk all that. And fk anyone platforming that dispiriting, disingenuous bullsh!t.
(Fortunately I’m not in the New York metro area and don’t have to endure the news-sluice of defamatory BS. We get enough of that by being in the Iowa TV market for political ads, thank you very much!)
"(Fortunately I’m not in the New York metro area and don’t have to endure the news-sluice of defamatory BS. We get enough of that by being in the Iowa TV market for political ads, thank you very much!)"
Republicans here in the Confederate States have been running against AOC and Pelosi for *years* even in local races. Mamdani is about to be used for purposes completely out of his control.
We see that stuff too. Next, well-meaning people like Carville, Frum, Brooks, et al. will counsel Dems not to run anyone, anywhere, for any office, lest the Republicans unfairly portray them as extremist Commie Hamas types.
Out and about with my sister yesterday, we thought we'd better break for lunch. We pick a neighborhood Chinese place. Mostly white geezers when we walk in, with Chinese parties trickling in later.
Two women, more elderly than us, are in the booth directly across the aisle. One's an old hand, who raves to her newbie friend about the eggplant stuffed with shrimp, and newbie orders the same. While they wait, the OH starts on a saga about eye treatment, including her Rx for 2 kinds of drops. Sister gives me a look, and I hold up 3 fingers, for the different drops the retina docs currently have me on.
At some point, OH switches to: "I hope Trump cleans it out! 90% of the professors are communists!" This refers to that hotbed of Marxist-Leninism, the University of Michigan, Inc. OH continues with a rant about how many students are Chinese--as the sister and I watch the Chinese-American waitress heading toward that booth with the beloved eggplant dish. Being in our bubble of relative sanity, we don't routinely hear much of this first-hand. But one can never misunderestimate the fellow Americans lacking in cognitive dissonance.
"Oh, did ICE take Carol? Sorry to hear that, she was so nice to us, I'll have the eggplant, thanks."
Well, I gotta admit you can't lose if you don't try!
Yes, they'll try anything and everything. I'm just saying (and I guess I could have just said, but then the newsletter would be too short) that they can't take your hope, and everything it really can achieve including victory, unless you let them.
I just flashed back to the Omaha mayoral race a few weeks ago, the Republican incumbent pushed HARD on the anti-trans bullshit, and it completely fell flat with the voters. This one seems like an encouraging sign of how ineffective (at least in NYC) the "antisemitism" button is. They've got a limited set of buttons they can push, and the harder they push them, it's natural to expect some diminution of effect over time. Oh, except for the racism button, of course. That one's still goin' strong.
the usual suspects will flood the zone with cash and propaganda
They did this for the primary and it didn't work. I don't think the presence of Curtis Sliwa will make any difference to this
The best argument for optimism I’ve heard these days. Could the qualities that allow New Yorkers, even decades after they’ve moved away, to discern the difference between compassion and whatever it is that motivates rich assholes seep into a majority of other Americans, stripping the sheep’s clothing off the Trumps and Musks and Thiels and Zuckerbergs and Bezoses? Could the next election cycle find our fellow citizens voting for their own interests - and their neighbors of every color and creed - and against the fascists who want to substitute oligarchy for democracy? If the Pope can tell Trump and Vance to fuck straight off, maybe the not-infallibles can, too.
One of the most dependable and enduring features of American political life over the last half-century is that any candidate who murmurs anything even vaguely resembling "ya know, maybe we should help those who need help" is instantly proclaimed to be an ultra-far Left Stalinist extremist. The fact that the mainstream media will echo this endlessly is one of the things that has brought us to our current state. (Even if they don't print headlines proclaiming Mamdani as the second coming of Stalin, they'll publish article after article crammed with quotes from wealthy assholes complaining that having to pay even $10 more a year in taxes to fund, say, Head Start is confiscatory.)
Oh hell, they called the Clintons "Left Wing Communists." What does that even mean? Unfortunately it seems to work, at least nationwide.
They called JOE BIDEN a communist.
And the head of the Biden crime family.
Also a robot, replacing the real Joe Biden when he died of Covid (which doesn't actually kill anyone, just the vaccines kill people) A senile robot, also a criminal mastermind. Any questions?
"the mainstream media will echo this endlessly" yeah weird ain't it: it's like when a friend imitates an absent mutual acquaintance and you can tell without being told who it is. If you imagine that hopeless POV and tone of voice, you can immediately recognize it as that of our Prestige Press.
Money to go to Mars? [happy Drake meme]
Money to fund free public transit? [repulsed Drake meme]
Mars is for winners, the subway is for losers. Easy.
Transit is from Venus; incels are from Mars
Blimps? Uh, let's see...blimps.
Oh, yeah – blimps are from Ura - ah, never mind...
Does Uranus make you uncomfortable?
Yeah, but it's a distant second to Mercury.
A first-class ticket to Paris is probably thousands of dollars one-way, how much could it cost to send someone to Mars? And who would pay it? If the rich assholes are paying their own way, welcome to Mars: A planet of 100 billionaires with a thousand robots to cook their food and wipe their asses. Sounds like fun, huh? OTOH if they're expecting my TAX DOLLARS to go to their Adventure in the Off-World Colonies, I'm goin' all J6 on their asses.
It costs like $10,000 a pound to get off earth and ~$100,000 a pound to get to the moon and back
These feebs probably drop more than $10 a year on the sidewalk by accident. It's just the idea of helping the poors that enrages them.
Yep
Perfectly willing to pay taxes if you can assure them the money will only go to hurt people.
“I feel like people misunderstood my $250,000 [donation] for Cuomo for real enthusiasm”
Perish the thought. He probably just hands out a quarter million all the time - I bet he gave that to the last homeless person he encountered.
Up his taxes by 250k and you'll see some real enthusiasm.
"Looks like you weren't doing anything useful with that money anyway."
Well, Cuomo was leading in some polls and is a vindictive asshole so you have to not be in bad with him
That "failure is impossible" is exactly right. Instances of success and knowing hope are reminders to keep on.
Some of my takeaways from the campaign were about Mamdami's great talent for it. And on a city-wide scale, it was so reminiscent of AOC's first race. The door-knocking and the shoe leather; in this case, Zohran and crew did a walk across the length of Manhattan. In the end, both campaigns delivering a KO to an Establishment shoe-in.
And how about that Brad Lander? His selfless collaboration with Zohran. He's arrested by DHS goons and continues to show up at immigration court. I await his new roles in great things for NYC and, I hope, beyond. He's another example of a true public servant. We need to remember they exist, and that we deserve to have them everywhere.
"Keep hope alive." Also, "Eat the rich." I feel better already.
Huzzah Roy!
Your title alludes to my fave Richard Hell and the Voidoids number, even more that "Love comes in Spurts":
Liars Beware Lyrics
Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
Look out liars and you highlife scum
Who gotta keep your victims poor and dumb
Your motives and your methods are not disguised
By your silk, soap, sex, or your smiling lies
Your lies
Your lies
Look out here
You pompous jerk
Look out here
I'll go berserk
Well I guess you put me in my place
But I won't forget your stupid face
They gave you power cause they knew your needs
Soprano boys get talent when you shoot your seeds
Your seeds
Your seeds
Well you laugh to hear what your best friends say
Old man they laugh when you walk away
Away
Away
Look out chief
Ridiculous creep
Look out thief
You'll lose your teeth
Well you got power, now there's competition
And your blind side's turned to the boys with a mission
You were sixty-five when you wiggled out
Your mind all twisted and your mom all shout
I'm a man with his share of excess nice
But it can't be spared for drooling lice
Still trying to understand the $8 halal cart as a political issue...
Yep
"On no account let them take your hope from you — especially not on the grounds that having hope may leave you disappointed, because we are neither children nor emotionally disabled and we know that while not every campaign is a success, failure is impossible."
Man, I wish I had learned this 50 years ago. Life is full of disappointments. It hurts and then you get over it. Don't live your life trying to avoid disappointment. Don't be afraid to hope for the best because you're afraid you'll be disappointed.
Also, it's not exactly "We'll fight them on the beaches, we'll fight them on the landing grounds, WE WILL NEVER SURRENDER" but I'll take it!
I like it better because it doesn't involve fighting on beaches. I'm not a beach person.
Noted. I'll pencil you in for "landing ground."
Roy'll fight them in the editorial office coffee room!
Me too!
I think we probably all saw Bill Ackman's tweets progressing through the valley of the shadow of having to pony up for all-day kindergarten. Hopefully that plutocrat money goes straight to those ineffectual Democratic consultants who claim to know the electorate so well.
But I'm worried about the DOJ. They kept Adam's alive politically and did it blatantly. Trump can gut Mamdami's campaign with harassment lawsuits, tax fraud investigations, hate-crime charges, taking him out both with PR and using lawfare to drain his funds. I don't know whether they're bureaucratically capable of that kind of attack, but they're morally capable for sure.
For the general election:
I didn't leave the Communist Party, the Communist Party left me.
--- Mamdani
I was all down with the 3rd International but when they went to the 4th, they lost me.
This Amp Up To Eleven International
I've had 2 (now blocked) pro-Israel 'friends'-by-two-degrees-separation on social media go insane on me regarding the NYC outcome like I was solely responsible. Some wild, all-caps screaming and YOU'LL BE SORRY WHEN SHARIA LAW COMES... I find this so upsetting and alarming. Why can't we just have normal elections anymore? Everything has to be amped up to 9,000 watts all the time. Oy vey.
Shoot, Sharia Law is already here; they just call it "Texas".
Palantir to repace the state name in "The Eyes of Texas are Upon You."
"I find this so upsetting and alarming." Well...
Fuck 'em.
I know I'm emotionally damaged (it's my secret weapon!) and you probably don't want the drama (don't blame you!) but the time has come to let people, including one's friends, know when they've been turned into buffoons and rage clowns and made impossible to take seriously. They probably won't learn but you have to offer them the chance.
Thankfully these aren't people I actually know. I've offed a few 'real people' who just don't get it also.
It's absolutely in our best interests to just let go of people who don't/won't/can't get it, whether it's a situation like this, or just other life related things. As I've thought about someone I've known for roughly 47 years who I've just stopped communicating with: "Your empathy module is in very bad shape (if it exists at all), and I don't like what you're serving up any more."