Zohran, the Magnificent

 Zohran, the Magnificent - American Thinker   

"Those in his party, the Democratic Socialists of America, lead similarly cloistered lives. Over the last few decades, universities have produced a bumper crop of these people—graduates of disciplines in which they are trained to identify systems of oppression but not much else."

AfterMath - Home

Trying to Think Wise Thoughts after DSA Tuesday   

. . . "Labor unions? A rigid system giving above-market wages to organized workers for a season.

Government education? A rigid system of teaching the official narrative to kids bored out of their minds.

Business regulation? A way of forcing businesses to pay tribute to politicians and regulators.

Universities? A way of getting the young generation buried in debt and young women spouting woke ideology." . . .

How the Left Fell in Love With Militant Islam

  Endowment for Middle East Truth

Although some Leftists have sympathy for Islamist causes, most Islamists are disgusted by their rainbow flag-waving ideological counterparts. But that does not change their shared ideological roots.

"(April 2, 2024 / Newsweek) In the “Gender and Islam” course that I took a few years ago at Columbia University, the professor made what many might consider a provocative point: Western criticism of female genital mutilation and honor killings is hypocritical and a form of racism.

"While she lectured, two young women sitting in the front row—one in a spaghetti-string tank top with green hair and several piercings and the other conservatively dressed and wearing a hijab—snapped their fingers in approval.

"At the time, I wondered why these women, living in the United States and so different on the outside, were so quick to dismiss the subjugation of women in other places in the world?

"There has been a similar surprise for American moderates since the vicious, inhuman assault on Israel on Oct. 7 by Hamas. They have been shocked by the support for the Islamic extremists from Leftist academics and activists. How could ardently feminist supporters side with a culture that represses women? How could trans-rights activists back a society where any deviation from sexual or gender norms can result in death. What could the far left have in common with Islamists who seem to stand for everything they are against?

"Dig down and you’ll see Islamists and radical leftists have a lot more in common than meets the eye.

"Prominent leftist scholars like Noam Chomsky and Judith Butler have expressed support for such terrorist groups as Hamas and Hezbollah and have described them as part of the international and progressive left." . . .

Joseph Epstein is EMET’s Director of Research. Prior to EMET, Joseph worked in Business Intelligence and Due Diligence for Kroll and Vcheck Global. He has additionally worked as a journalist, analyst, and consultant covering security and migration issues in the former Soviet Union, the Middle East, and Central Africa. 

Silenced no more: The Israeli women who documented Hamas's October 7 sexual crimes   

. . . "She arrived in New York expecting that evidence of the atrocities committed against women would command urgent international attention. Instead, she found herself surrounded by the UN Committee’s apathy and hatred, as dozens of pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas activists came out to accuse Israel of genocide. The experience left a profound impression. “I remember feeling devastated,” Elkayam-Levy told the Magazine in an interview at the commission’s office in Modi’in." . . .

Why jihadi evil attracts the left

 Washington Examiner  

"The difference and winning margin between the two was that the losers didn’t reject Israel’s right to exist and wouldn’t voice antisemitic hatred the way the victors did."

"Friday will be the thousandth day since jihadis massacred 1,200 people in Israel. Which means we’ve been wrestling for about 999 days with the appalling fact that the pogroms increased support for Hamas and the other terrorists instead of revolting and alienating world opinion.

"The jihadis tortured and mutilated their victims, raped and murdered them, burned and starved them, and forced them to watch as they inflicted their horrors on their mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, grandparents and babies. The fact that such evil would draw rather than repel millions of people seems, on the surface, inexplicable.

"Yet the killers of Oct. 7, 2023, knew it would happen. They calculated that visual evidence of their depravities would stoke enthusiasm. The rest of us should have known this, too. After all, we saw it happen only a decade earlier when young Westerners abandoned their home countries to join the Islamic State after seeing video of those black-clad executioners slit the throats, decapitate, and burn their caged victims alive.

"So 1,000 days ago in Israel, the marauders strapped on cameras, recorded every atrocity, and uploaded the video for global viewing on the internet. They wanted the world to see. They knew it would not be only proud parents back in Gaza who’d swell with pride. It would be millions of others around the planet.

"By Oct. 8, a Jew-hating subculture that had previously been underground emerged from tunnels beneath Western civilization to celebrate the barbarities we’d all just witnessed. They blamed Israel, they insisted rape was resistance, and they beat and intimidated fellow countrymen in America who happened to be Jews. They were not protesting Zionism or other policies, as they claimed. They were giving free, gleeful rein amid the madness of crowds, to a vile and visceral hatred.

"This hatred is engulfing much of what we used to know as leftism. It explains why radical candidates lost in Democratic congressional primaries last week to other radical candidates. The difference and winning margin between the two was that the losers didn’t reject Israel’s right to exist and wouldn’t voice antisemitic hatred the way the victors did.

"This hatred is engulfing much of what we used to know as leftism. It explains why radical candidates lost in Democratic congressional primaries last week to other radical candidates. The difference and winning margin between the two was that the losers didn’t reject Israel’s right to exist and wouldn’t voice antisemitic hatred the way the victors did." . . . More...

The LGBT movement is being consumed by 'pro-Palestine' activists

 Zachary Faria, Washington Examiner

"The LGBT movement is currently being consumed by the antisemitic “pro-Palestine” movement, to the point that even the biggest champions of the former now find themselves as targets of their left-wing base.

"Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was booed at a New York City “Pride” parade on Sunday by the gathered left-wing activists. On its face, this would seem like the kind of crowd that would be most accepting of Schumer. As Schumer told his hecklers, “I was the first senator to ever march in this parade, in 1999. And I haven’t missed one yet.” No element of the Democratic Party coalition has a bigger ally in Schumer than the LGBT “community.”

"But the Democratic Party is being overrun by the Palestinian movement, and Schumer is a Jewish Democrat who criticizes Israel but doesn’t openly celebrate or defend Palestinian terrorism the way the party’s activist base does. This is especially true in New York City, where communist Islamist Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s endorsed candidates dominated the city’s primaries last week. As one Mamdani ally said, “Palestine is on the ballot” in New York, and Schumer’s long support of the LGBT movement isn’t going to help him anymore.

"You could argue that booing Schumer is just the result of generic dislike of the Democratic establishment, but you can’t argue the same thing for Scott Wiener, the state senator who is the favorite to fill Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) seat in Congress. Wiener's greatest hits include reducing criminal penalties for knowingly exposing someone to HIV, turning California into a “sanctuary state” for the medical mutilation of “transgender” children, putting male prisoners in women’s prisons, and inadvertently aiding the sex trafficking industry by decriminalizing loitering with intent to commit prostitution. Wiener did all of those things under the pretense of helping the LGBT “community.”

"That was not enough to protect him, though, as he was harassed away from a transgender march by antisemitic activists screaming at him and accusing him of having Israeli handlers." . . .

Communism’s deadliest failure wasn’t the gulags

See below why Ukrainians welcomed Germans as liberators. But then...

Communism’s deadliest failure wasn’t the gulags "This video shows how communist regimes killed on a massive scale, with famine causing the greatest loss of life. It traces the collapse from forced collectivization in Soviet Russia to Mao’s Great Leap Forward in China, where state control over food turned shortages into catastrophe. Labor camps, purges, and mass killings added millions more deaths. The result was one of history’s deadliest political experiments, with consequences that reshaped entire countries. This video shows how communist regimes killed on a massive scale, with famine causing the greatest loss of life. It traces the collapse from forced collectivization in Soviet Russia to Mao’s Great Leap Forward in China, where state control over food turned shortages into catastrophe. Labor camps, purges, and mass killings added millions more deaths. The result was one of history’s deadliest political experiments, with consequences that reshaped entire countries."    Video.

The term "Kulaks" I see as comparable to those Democrat Socialists such as Bernie Sanders and his followers call "oligarchs"; people who by their skills make a nation prosperous and well-fed. The case can be made today for Jews in Israel being considered "Kulaks" in their relation to Hamas. Ask many Columbia University students or whoever you see with their arm around Greta Thunberg. TD

More than you might want on the gulags - YouTube

Nearly half of Maine voters say Graham Platner 'too extreme' as poll shows race with Sen. Susan Collins tightening

 NY Post 

  "A whopping 61% of respondents said that Collins would do a better job of bringing federal dollars to Maine, while just 34% said the same of Platner." 

Uncle Paul's Parodies

"WASHINGTON — Almost half of likely voters in Maine’s closely watched Senate race view Democrat hopeful Graham Platner as “too extreme,” a new poll has found.

"The New York Times/Portland Press Herald/Siena College survey also found that only 44% would describe Platner as having “good character” compared to incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (66%), and just 45% agree the Democrat “has the right kind of moral values” compared to Collins (61%).

"The poll still showed Platner leading Collins 49% to 47%, with 3% saying they didn’t know who they would support or declining to answer.

"Platner, 41, is endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and backs policies such as a single-payer healthcare system, packing the Supreme Court, and a wealth tax.

"However, his campaign has been dogged by a series of scandals, including physical abuse of a former girlfriend, sexting other women while married, making offensive comments on Reddit and getting a tattoo of a notorious Nazi SS symbol.

"Platner has denied both being violent towards past girlfriends and knowing that he had a Nazi tattoo, though multiple former flames have released messages in which they describe the tattoo to confidants before its significance was publicly known." . . .  More...

Newsom’s Calculated Embrace of Mamdani’s Socialism ; Newsom is California's self-inflicted wound

"California’s governor is recasting himself as a champion of wealth redistribution, betting that the road to the Democratic presidential nomination runs through the party’s activist left."

The American Spectator  

 "As Gavin Newsom’s governorship enters its final chapter, his eyes are no longer fixed on Sacramento. They are fixed on Washington. More specifically, on the White House. Like Sauron’s obsession with the One Ring, Newsom’s political focus has narrowed to one overriding object of desire: the presidency. That is the only way to understand Newsom’s latest economic manifesto, released Friday under the banner of a national billionaires’ tax. Newsom does not want to be seen standing with California billionaires against the left. This was not merely a policy paper. It was positioning. Newsom is pushing for a federal minimum tax targeting billionaires and anyone with a net worth exceeding $100 million. He wants to eliminate what the tax code currently permits: the ultra-wealthy borrowing against their stock portfolios, living off those loans tax-free, and then passing the underlying assets to their heirs with the embedded gains never taxed. He wants to overhaul inheritance law before what economists project will be the single largest generational transfer of wealth in American history — an estimated $124 trillion passing between generations over the next two decades. And he wants Washington to establish a national public equity fund, effectively giving every American a financial stake in the profits generated by artificial intelligence. In plain English, he wants Washington to tax, redistribute, and socialize more of the American economy. Under Newsom’s proposal, Washington would not merely regulate successful industries. It would claim an ownership interest in them. Silicon Valley entrepreneurs would build the companies, investors would risk the capital, and the federal government would arrive later demanding a share of the upside in the name of economic fairness. Bernie Sanders should be thrilled. Elizabeth Warren should be smiling. And Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s newly elected mayor and national face of democratic socialism, should recognize a politician sprinting to ..."

The rest is behind a paywall, but this is sufficient warning...

UPDATE: So much for 'affordability': LA voters raise their own taxes, again 

 "It was the year of “affordability.” Or so we thought.

"Earlier this month, LA County voters chose to pass Measure ER, a 0.5% sales tax increase that ostensibly will last for five years and will apply to almost everything you buy.

"So… congratulations, you’ll now pay more?

"The Board of Supervisors put Measure ER on the ballot and said the money was needed to fund local health care services." . . .

George Soros funneled staggering $103M into midterms so far

 NY Post  

"His native Hungary passed “Stop Soros” laws in 2018, forcing the magnate to move his Open Society Foundation’s European operations elsewhere."

"Billionaire Democratic kingmaker George Soros and his son Alex spent a staggering $102.8 million in the midterm election cycle — making the family chief architects of the party’s seismic shift toward the radical left.

"With the November elections still more than four months away, George Soros could shatter his own spending record of $128 million set during the last midterms four years ago, when he was the biggest single donor.

"Money talks, and Soros money says the most insidious, unconstitutional, costly tax hikes in American history are on the table,” said Douglas Kellogg, state projects director for Americans for Tax Reform.

"Soros is a “wannabe Bond villain,” responsible for the radical takeover of the Democratic Party, he added.

"Only a fraction of this cycle’s contributions — $793,800 — were made in the 95-year-old mega donor’s name, a review of publicly available Federal Election Commission data reveals.

"Almost all of the money — $102 million — was funneled through the Democracy Political Action Committee, the super PAC Soros launched in 2020, which acts as the family’s main political arm, obfuscating efforts to know which radical candidates the clan is propping up.

"Of that, a little over half, $52 million, came from George Soros through the private corporation Geosor under his name and the other half, $50 million, from Fund for Policy Reform, a nonprofit which lists Alex Soros as director in tax filings.

"And that’s without counting the family’s main organization, the Open Society Foundation — which funds efforts to decriminalize drugs, open the border and abolish the police — and its lobbying wing the Open Society Action Fund, which is even more obscure as it doesn’t have to disclose political spending because it’s registered as a nonprofit claiming to do mere advocacy work.

"In previous election cycles, the Open Society Action Fund’s cash flowed to groups backing lefty stars like “Squad” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and embattled pal Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), but its tax filings for 2025 aren’t yet available." . . .   More...

Socialism is only a symptom. Republicans can’t risk ignoring the real problem

Fox News  

And any political movement that ignores that reality does so at its own peril.

"The left isn’t embracing socialism. It’s rejecting the status quo.

"The political world woke up after Tuesday’s election asking the same question: Is the Democratic Party lurching toward socialism?

"Maybe.

But that’s not the question that matters.

"The question that matters is this: Why are more voters willing to give socialism a look in the first place?

"Because if Republicans answer that question incorrectly, they risk making precisely the same mistake Democrats made in 2016." . .  .

Mamdani is a Communist and a Jihadist. He Should Not Even Be Allowed in the US.    

. . . "Democratic Socialist’ is akin to ‘National Socialist’ or ‘Democratic Republic of….’ in former Soviet client States. It is a figleaf polite term for grotesquely extremist politics.? . . .

What I find threatening are the voices cheering for Bernie/AOC/Mamdani are the youthful, female choruses that we heard applauding Hamas rapists and child murderers. Included are those who adore killers of family men, leaders of Christian and Jewish support groups, and your ubiquitous useful idiots, being paid to carry pre-printed signs for causes they cannot explain. TD    One such person doing what she does...

When the American Dream Dies, Socialism Rises - Brian C. Joondeph

. . . "If policymakers wish to counter socialism’s growing appeal, lectures about its historical failures will not be enough.

"The more persuasive response would be restoring the conditions that once made the American economic model so compelling: affordable housing, accessible education, rising real wages, and genuine upward mobility.

"When opportunity expands, faith in markets follows.

"But when opportunity fades, socialism begins to sound less like a warning — and more like a solution."  

L.A.’s 4 Seasons: Fires, Riots, Meth and Election Theft

Ann Coulter  

"The U.S. Constitution prescribes a single “day” for elections, but instead of Election Day, California has Election Season, giving activists a month to collect ballots, fill them out and submit them."

"The preposterous spectacle of the recent mayoral runoff election in Los Angeles may be a blessing in disguise—and not just for Republican candidate Spencer Pratt, who can now move his family to Miami. As the entire country saw, Pratt walloped the Indian progressive lady the night of the election, then watched as his lead vanished during a week of ballot “counting.”

"The switcheroo was surprising not only because the progressive lady, City Council member Nithya Raman, supports encampments of homeless drug addicts next to grammar schools (unless her kids are forced to gaze upon them) but also because the late-arriving ballots gave Pratt three new votes while delivering about 100,000 new votes for her.

"Allegedly, Pratt finished “third.” Voters will now have to choose between a communist in Mayor Karen Bass, and an admitted socialist in “second place finisher” Raman (a smug imbecile who makes New York mayor Zohran Mamdani look like Winston Churchill).

"Liberals have gone from saying You can’t prove we cheated to writing ponderous think pieces in The New York Times boasting about the genius of progressive leadership in our cities. Apparently, releasing criminals and decriminalizing crime has been wildly successful on all counts — homicide rates (“declining”), homelessness (“down”) and drug overdoses (“fallen pretty remarkably”). That’s why, the ponderous think piece by David Wallace-Wells continues, cities are not “shifting right, as many expected, but left.”

"Yes, it was simply the power of liberal ideas that won the day.

"Liberals accuse right-wingers of lacking every basic human characteristic, but do they really think we lack a prefrontal cortex?

"Of course the Los Angeles election was stolen, openly, audaciously, without an ounce of shame. Raman could not be identified by 10 out of 10 Los Angelinos. Couldn’t liberals stop insulting our intelligence and stick to Hahaha, we stole the election and there’s nothing you can do about it?" . . . More...

Memo to the Atlantic League, York Revolution Baseball Team Owners

 The American Spectator  

In short? This isn’t rocket science. Baseball-loving Americans go to baseball games to — shocker! — watch a baseball game. Not to get hassled about their politics, whatever those politics may be.

Broc Smith

"Play ball!

"Once upon a time, that call-out from a baseball umpire was the signal for a baseball game to begin. And for that matter, whether that game was being played by major league teams, minor league teams, college baseball games, or Little League teams.

"But now?

"Here’s a headline from Fox News Sports: “Pro baseball team forfeits Pride Night game after players refuse to wear themed jerseys, organization says,” with the subtitle, “The Atlantic League team called the players’ decision ‘completely inconsistent with our vision’ in a scathing statement.”

"The Fox story reports:

"A professional baseball team in Pennsylvania will be forfeiting a game on Thursday that was scheduled to be the team’s Pride Night after players refused to wear LGBTQ-themed jerseys, the team announced.

"The York Revolution of the Atlantic League, the same league where Trevor Bauer currently plays, said the decision “was not reached lightly” in announcing the forfeit to the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs on Wednesday.

"Then came this kicker in the story. It said: “The team was not afraid to throw its players under the bus in a rather scathing statement, saying it was ‘deeply troubled and profoundly disappointed by the decisions of these few players.’”

"And the “rather scathing statement” from the ball club? It reads in part:" . . .

"But the essence here, which one would have to be blind to miss, is that the team owners of the York Revolution, not to mention those who run the Atlantic League, have decided they are not really about baseball at all but view themselves instead as social activists supporting the latest far-left cause that catches their political fancy."

Intellectual Morons: How Ideology Makes Smart People Fall for Stupid Ideas

Intellectual Morons: How Ideology Makes Smart People Fall for Stupid Ideas

 "This is a book about morons. The morons that we'll meet don't have tobacco juice dripping from their chins, sunburned necks, or any other stereotypical manifestations of dimness. As the title suggests, Intellectual Morons focuses on cognitive elites who embarrass themselves by championing idiotic theories, beliefs, and opinions. It is a quite pedestrian occurrence for stupid people to fall for stupid ideas. More interesting, and of greater harm to society, is the phenomenon of smart people falling for stupid ideas. Ph.D.'s, high IQs, and intellectual honors are not antidotes to thickheadedness." . . .

The new policy that divides California taxpayers   "California voters will face a critical financial decision this November as a controversial new wealth tax officially secures its place on the ballot. The measure, known as the California Billionaire Tax Act, introduces a stark policy dividing Californian taxpayers, forcing a high-stakes debate between progressive wealth redistribution and economic preservation. Sponsored by the coalition Billionaire Tax Now, the initiative aims to leverage the state's ultra-wealthy to shore up public services. However, it has exposed a massive rift within the state's political and financial leadership, pitting public sector unions against top tech entrepreneurs and even the state's own Democratic governor.

California to vote on billionaire wealth tax in November

"The initiative, spearheaded by the Service Employees International Union Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), proposes a one-time 5% tax on individuals residing in California as of January 1, 2026, with a net worth exceeding $1 billion." 

California's failed governor, Gavin Newsom, calls for a 'national' billionaire's tax - American Thinker   ". 

Steven Fiorillo: 

. . . "Let me be clear about what I am defending and what I am not. I am not a billionaire, nor am I carrying water for the billionaire class. I am defending entrepreneurship. I am defending the simple radical idea that any American with a good idea and a relentless work ethic can build something enormous out of nothing. That drive is the engine of our economy and a tax on net worth is a direct penalty for building that engine." ...

The murdered Charlie Kirk speaks about socialism.