By Bob Gaydos

Zohran Mamdani

  Mamdani’s his name. Remember it. Get it right. Two ‘m’s and then an ‘n.’ Next mayor of New York City. His first name is Zohran.

    This all needs a little explaining.

     Given a choice in the June primary of Andrew Cuomo, a former governor who had resigned in disgrace because of numerous accusations of sexual misconduct, and Eric Adams, a mayor whose administration was awash in corruption and who personally had federal bribery and corruption charges against him dropped by the Trump administration in exchange for a promise to cooperate with the ICE roundup of anyone who looks suspiciously Hispanic, New York City Democrats chose a young, Ugandan-born Democratic Socialist, Muslim, naturalized citizen, state legislator as their candidate for mayor.

    Zohran Mamdani.

    It wasn’t close and it wasn’t strictly by default. A bright, personable 33-year-old who has mastered social media skills, Mamdani also clearly had a message that resonated with New Yorkers who are finding it increasingly difficult to afford to live in the city they love.

    While Cuomo and Adams talked about their experience in government, Mamdani spoke of free bus service and free child care for children between six weeks and five years old and “baby baskets” for new parents that would include educational resources as well as diapers and baby wipes.

  He talked of a city-owned grocery store in each borough. The stores would operate on city-owned land or in city buildings, buy food wholesale and be exempt from property taxes, which would keep the cost of the food down.

    He said he would freeze rents for nearly one million New Yorkers by strategic appointments to the board which decides on increases for rent-stabilized apartments. He also promised to triple the number of available affordable housing units, with 200,000 new homes to be built over the next decade.

    You get the picture. He talked to New Yorkers about things that were really bothering them and offered a plan to pay for it all.

   Mamdani said he would raise the corporate tax rate to 11.5 percent, which he says will bring in an additional $5 billion. And, he plans a 2 percent tax on the wealthiest 1 percent of New Yorkers.

    Cuomo called Mamdani’s plans “unrealistic.“ So did the wealthy city dwellers and corporations, not to mention old guard Democratic politicians who depend on their campaign contributions. After Mamdani’s surprise victory, big money began pouring into Cuomo’s now independent campaign for mayor. They also desperately began looking for a candidate who wasn’t a – gasp! – socialist.

    In fact, establishment Democrats sounded just like typical Republicans and that’s a terrible thing for a politician in New York City and much of the country these days. Dismissing progressive ideas as too left, too radical and looking for the comfortable middle of the road, in the process offering nothing to contrast with today’s devastating Republican scorched-earth agenda, is a recipe for loss. The status quo is a no go.

    To be clear, Mamdani is a Democrat who shares the same Democratic Socialist values as Bernie Sanders, a Brooklyn boy: Tax people fairly according to their wealth for the greater good of all people. Make New York City a great place to live and work and raise a family even if you’re not super wealthy. A democracy for everyone. It’s not communism; it’s not socialism. Today, in the age of ever greater corporate power, it’s realism.

      Apparently, a lot of registered Democratic voters agree. They don’t want used or tainted goods. Since Democrats far outnumber Republicans in the city, the Democratic candidate is always heavily favored to win.

   The Republican candidate, staging a reprise of his 2021 losing campaign, is Curtis Sliwa. I honestly didn’t even know he was still around. Sliwa, now 73, is a founder of the once upon a time, Guardian Angels, who patrolled the streets of the city in the 1980s, purporting to reduce crime. Sliwa later admitted to faking some “crimes“ they had “prevented.” He also escaped a kidnapping and apparent assassination attempt by John Gotti Jr., who was charged, but not convicted after three trials. Gotti Senior apparently didn’t like something Sliwa said about him.

     Like everyone else these days, Sliwa has a podcast and, I guess, describes himself as a citizen activist. He was unopposed for the Republican nomination for mayor so you can see why Democrats are favored to win. Unless they sabotage themselves, which they have been known to do.

      The Democratic establishment quickly branded Mamdani too far left to win. Even though he just won. Even though he is young, smart and speaks his mind. Even though he may have given city voters yet another convincing reason to vote for him.

      In a direct rebuke to the Adams/Trump deal, Mamdani says New York City should strengthen its sanctuary city laws and promises to bar Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers from city facilities. Polls say that most Americans, never mind just New York City residents, would support this approach.

     Mamdani. Get it right. Next mayor of New York City.

I didn’t get one.

By Bob Gaydos

This will be short and maybe a little personal because it’s Monday and it’s hot and buggy outside and I’m still brooding over not being invited to the Bezos wedding in Venice.

I mean, yeah, it was ostentatious and not that I would’ve known how to socialize with Oprah, the Kardashians, Tom Brady, Bill Gates and a bunch of influencers I never heard of, but I don’t cause trouble, I do have Amazon Prime and it would’ve been nice to see Venice.

It certainly would’ve been more fun than following the daily doings of Trump and the dumpster fire that is the Republican Party in the Congress. The big story of course is this big, awful budget bill that Trump wants passed in one shot, instead of holding hearings on budget proposals from various departments the way Congress usually does it. Get all the lies in one basket, pass it and go home. That’s the plan.

So far, it’s not working because it’s such a cruel bill, skewed to take from the poor and give to the rich that even a few Republicans have had to say so. There’s several thousand inches of copy on it in The New York Times if you want to know all the details. Basically, poor people lose healthcare and very rich people get very richer and ICE gets to build a big special prison all its own.

All it needs is a couple more Republican senators with a bare minimum of decency to kill it, but so far there don’t seem to be any. The Trumper likes holidays, so he wants the bill passed by July 4 so he can celebrate. He’ll probably invite Bezos for a big Mac.

Oh yeah, the prison that ICE would get to build, Trump and the MaGAs would no doubt love to use as a new home for Zohran Mamdani, the Muslim Democratic Socialist who just won the Democratic primary for mayor in New York City. Trump‘s already called him a communist. A Republican senator suggested he was a terrorist. The president’s press secretary suggested he might be worth investigating since he’s a naturalized citizen. I’m surprised the men in the masks haven’t already shown up.

This is not how I like to start my week. I mean, I would’ve gone out and rented a tux if Bezos had invited me.

Too hot and buggy. Talk to you tomorrow.

By Bob Gaydos

Zohran Mamdani (smiling) left Andrew Cuomo (rear) in the dust in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City.

That loud sound of the very ground being torn apart on the East Coast was the political equivalent of an earthquake.

Tuesday, Democrats in New York City chose a Muslim Indian born in Africa to be their party’s candidate for mayor over former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams. Oh, and the chosen candidate, a naturalized citizen, is a Democratic Socialist.

Go ahead. Read that again. I’ll wait.

Zohran Mamdani, a little-known state assemblyman from Queens, shocked the political world and scared the pants off wealthy backers of Cuomo and Adams as well as many city businesses, who feared Mamdani’s basic platform issue of higher taxes on them and a lower cost of living for city residents.

Blasphemy! they cried. Communist! the MAGAs bellowed. Holy crap! Democratic leaders gulped.

Indeed, in a city where being a Democrat almost always guarantees being elected mayor, Mamdami’s victory left many of those so-called Democratic leaders befuddled in the middle, still looking for a way to fight Donald Trump and his MAGA cult without jeopardizing their own political status.

It might be just the earthquake the Democratic Party needed.

Clearly, the victory was a major rebuke to the Democratic establishment. Apparently, enough voters were finally fed up with overlooking the sins of the chosen political elite and allowing them to just move along as if nothing in their past really mattered when it came time to vote. This time, it apparently did matter.

Cuomo talked a lot about crime, which is actually down in the city. He ran a largely lackluster campaign based on his name recognition and the fact that he was a city boy from Queens who once was governor and so presumably knew best what was best for New Yorkers.

This required voters to overlook the fact that he was forced to resign as governor because of numerous allegations — by staff and other women — of sexual misconduct. He denied the charges, but the state attorney general was investigating him.

There was also his mishandling of the Covid crisis when he ordered elderly patients in overcrowded hospitals to be sent to nursing homes, where they received a lower level of care. Many died.

Plus, he was generally regarded as a bully.

None of this stopped him from running for mayor. I guess he needed the job.

For his part, the Adams administration has been a public relations disaster, marked by an almost weekly resignation by some top aide for questionable behavior.

Adams himself faced federal charges of taking illegal campaign contributions, but the Trump Justice Department, ever looking for some quid pro quo, agreed to drop the charges in exchange for Adams cooperating with ICE rounding up immigrants, or whomever, on city streets.

Apparently, that’s not exactly the way to win the hearts or votes of New Yorkers.

The big money people are rallying behind Cuomo and Adams, letting them know that the funds will be there if they want to run as independent candidates in November. Because, what do thousands of New York City Democrats know about what’s good for them? Also, that thing about higher taxes on rich people, free buses and affordable supermarkets.

Of course, Mamdani being Muslim, there are also the inevitable slurs, and fear-mongering about terrorism and accusations of anti-semitism.

For his part, he has pledged to step up efforts to combat antisemitism in the city. He says his argument is with Israeli President Bibi Netanyahu and some of his military policies, not with the Jewish people. A distinction some can’t, or refuse to, understand.

In any event, Mamdani on the East Coast shook up a static Democratic establishment by appealing directly to the people in plain language about everyday problems. Kind of like Bernie Sanders, another Democratic Socialist, did in 2016, when Democrats went for the establishment presidential candidate.

On the West Coast, a member of the Democratic establishment, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, recently struck a nerve in a somewhat moribund Democratic Party by taking on Donald Trump in plain, blunt language over ICE kidnappings in Los Angeles. Basically, calling a bully a bully, a liar a liar. Come and get me.

Polls showed a lot of Americans, not just Democrats, like Newsom‘s message.

Now, if Democrats can take off the gloves and go coast-to-coast with a message most Americans can understand and agree with, they might be able to put the fear of God (losing elections) into enough Republicans to stop the Trump onslaught on democracy and the rule of law while there’s still a country worth saving.

Start spreading the news: When New Yorkers say, “Hey, enough’s enough! Get oudda here!” it’s worth paying attention.

By Bob Gaydos

First responders with part of wreckage of American Airlines Flight 5342 in the Potomac River.

   Since there are thousands of concerned citizens monitoring and reporting on the daily doings of Trump 2: The Revenge, I thought I’d give the White House crew a chance to get their feet re-wet (is that a word?) before checking in and issuing a report. Also, it helps preserve my sanity.

   In any event, here’s a quick summary of Team Trump’s nearly a fortnight back in business:

   — Ukraine. The war is still raging despite Trump’s boast he would end it the day he got elected.

  — The price of eggs. Rather than falling, as Trump promised voters, they have risen. No sign of falling. Gas prices are up, too. Fruits and vegetables are likely to follow with the promised mass deportation of migrant farm workers.

  — Deportations. ICE agents arrested some American citizens and non-criminal immigrants in initial efforts of the pledge to detain and deport criminal undocumented immigrants. Without warrants in some cases. Mexico refused to allow a U. S. military plane carrying undocumented immigrants to land. Inappropriate, its president said. So did Colombia, but its president agreed when Trump agreed not to use military planes, only after his threat of tariffs on Colombian goods failed. Trump said he would use Guantanamo as a mass holding facility (concentration camp) for undocumented immigrants.

  — The budget. An executive order to freeze virtually all federal funding already approved by Congress caused mass confusion nationwide, besides being illegal. Congress was flooded with calls. Lawsuits were filed. Non-profits scrambled. The order was rescinded the next day over the protests of Trump advisor Stephen Miller.

  — Greenland. Denmark says it’s still not for sale.

  — Cabinet. Vice President Vance cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate to approve TV personality Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense, despite reports of his drinking, womanizing and lack of experience for the position. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee for health secretary, displayed no knowledge of how Medicare and Medicaid work. And his cousin, Caroline, called him a predator who has consistently sought to profit from the assassinations of his father and uncle.

  — Condoms. Trump’s new press secretary said her boss’s new quasi Department of Government Efficiency had stopped the shipment of $50 million in condoms to Gaza, which Fox News said were to be used by Hamas to make mini-bombs. This never happened. Government accountants said $50 million would buy one billion condoms.

  — Pardons. Three insurrectionists were re-arrested two days after their release from prison. Two others refused the pardons, saying we saw what we saw on television.

   — DEI, staffing, etc. Trump fired the female head of the Coast Guard, the FAA director, froze hiring of air traffic controllers, disbanded the Aviation Safety Advisory Committee, illegally fired all inspectors general and encouraged all federal employees to consider retirement or a job buyout, similar to the one his buddy/advisor/neo-nazi Elon Musk offered and reneged on at Twitter/X.

   — DEI, part 2. An army helicopter collided late at night with a passenger jet on path to land at Reagan National Airport outside Washington, D.C. The two aircraft landed in the Potomac River. The FAA said 67 people were killed, the largest air traffic fatality in the country in 16 years. Trump (see above firings, etc.), without proof, blamed the crash on DEI (diversity, equality, inclusion) policies in the Biden administration that allowed hiring of “those who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions,” including people with hearing and vision issues as well as paralysis, epilepsy and “dwarfism.” Questioned repeatedly for specific roof of these allegations by reporters, he said he based his opinion on “common sense.”

   — DEI, part 3.  The FAA said staffing at the air traffic control tower was “not normal.” One controller was handling the job of two and the helicopter was off course.

  —  DEI, etc. While Trump blamed Biden, the nation mourned.

  Can’t wait for the next nearly a fortnight.                                    

By Bob Gaydos

There I was, minding my own business (sort of), scrolling through my Facebook news feed trying to find a video on the Yankees game sandwiched in among all the posts about ICE agents snatching kids away from their parents at the border, Scott Pruitt using his security detail to fetch him lotion and the trending, new puzzle — “Where’s Melania?” — when the ad grabbed my attention.

Did I want to take the “Mainstream Media Accountability Survey’’?

Huh? The what?

Who the heck is conducting this survey? I blurted to no one in particular.

It didn’t take long to find out. The ad, I was informed by Facebook’s new, better-late-than-never policy of full disclosure, was “Paid for by the Trump Make America Great Again Committee, a joint fundraising committee authorized by and composed of Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. and the Republican National Committee.”

Swell.

In the process of telling Facebook to never send me another post from the Trump MAGA Committee, I asked Facebook (as it now also allows me to do) how I even got this targeted ad — I’m familiar with targeting Facebook ads — in the first place.

Facebook offered two possibilities:

1. I shared the views of Trump MAGA. Uh, you could probably know that wasn’t true within 10 seconds of scrolling my wall.
2. The committee was targeting individuals between the ages of 18 and 65 living in the United States of America. That would be known as a pretty loose target audience, geography wise, but I fit. However, I have aged out of the age parameters, so Facebook messed up anyway. Your algorithms still need work, folks.

At any rate, being a longtime member of said “mainstream media,” I was hooked. I had to check out the “survey.”

George Orwell would have been proud; George Gallup not so much.

Here’s the first question: “Do you trust the mainstream media to put the interests of Americans first?

• Yes
• No
• No opinion
• Other, please specify:”

Loaded much? Remember, it’s supposedly targeted to like-minded individuals. As surveys go, this one evidenced the Trump team’s view of the scientific method: Ignore it.

Question number two: “Do you trust the mainstream media to report fairly on our presidency?” Same choices.

Then, in order: “Do you trust (NBC, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News) to report fairly on our presidency?” Same options.

If you’re sensing a pattern, you are correct. It’s all in the same vein as Der Leader’s message: These people are really untrustworthy enemies of the people, aren’t they?

Here’s just one more question, to demonstrate what passes for policy in the Trump GOP: “On which issues does the mainstream media do the worst job of representing President Trump? (Select as many that apply.)”

• Immigration
• Economics
• Radical Islamic Terrorism
• Pro-life values/social issues
• Religion
• Health care
• Second Amendment rights”

Note — “the worst job” as the operative choice and “as many as apply.” Nothing like piling on, folks.

The questions get more ridiculously slanted as the 25-question “survey” goes on. I fully expect the results to be proudly posted on Facebook and bantered around Fox News, With any luck and if Facebook follows my instructions, I won’t see them. But millions will and, again, those people who buy anything Trump sells will believe it and I’m pretty sure the Mainstream Media isn’t going to come out too well.

In the same week this ad appeared, Trump came late and left early at the G7 meeting of top world economies in Canada, but not before wrongly accusing Canada of burning down the White House in 1812 and threatening to cut off trade with our staunchest ally and largest trading partner while insisting Russia, which was booted out of the group after “annexing” Crimea, should be allowed back in.

Then Drumpf headed to Singapore where he intended to conduct negotiations on nuclear weapons with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un by sizing up his opposite number in the first minute or so via “feel.” It was also reported that Dennis Rodman, the former NBA star and reputed friend of Kim, was heading to Singapore, perhaps to play second fiddle to Kim as he once did for Michael Jordan. Trump had John Bolton as his sidekick. Rodman has the size, but I’d bet anything Bolton uses his elbows under the boards.

What’s the point of all this? Well, maybe that, under Trump, the real, the true, the factual, the serious business of life has become demonized and trivialized to the point that everything is treated as a reality TV show and millions of Americans are — for reasons no one has yet explained to my satisfaction beyond sheer ignorance and bigotry — hooked. Those videos of children being snatched from parents and locked up by ICE? Not true, say Trumpsters. Media lies. Or, if true, then necessary, the attorney general says, because … as if there could be any legitimate “because.”

The Republican Party as a functioning political organization has ceased to exist. Trump makes it up as he goes along and scapegoats anyone who points out his lies, ignorance, pettiness, greed and other overwhelming deficiencies. But the “survey” will come out and it will confirm his claims of bias by the mainstream media and it will be posted on social media and mailed to all white people in America likely to vote for Trump because that country with the strongest economy ever, that country that promises freedom and opportunity to all, that country so many “other” people are willing to risk losing their lives — or their children — in order to live in, needs to be made great again.

Survey says Betsy DeVos can relax. The dumbing-down of America is well under way.

rjgaydos@gmail.com