Tag: democratic socialists

Mamdani Furious After Judge Orders Deportation of NYC City Council Employee

The nerve of a judge to deport an illegal immigrant who held the lofty status of a staff member for the New York City Council has left New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani in high dudgeon.

Rafael Andres Rubio Bohorquez, a data analyst for the council, will be deported to Venezuela. The Department of Homeland Security said Rubio overstayed his 2017 tourist visa, has an arrest for assault, and does not possess work authorization, CBS News noted.

Mamdani argued his version of reality should take precedence over the law.

“Today, an administrative immigration judge ordered the deportation of Rafael Rubio, a City Council employee. This is an affront to justice,” Mamdani posted on X.

“A dedicated public servant with legal authorization to remain in the country, Rafael showed up for a routine immigration appointment and, despite following the rules, he was detained and has now been held for months. He should be immediately released,” Mamdani wrote.

Keep reading

Did Zohran Mamdani Lie About His Wife’s Connections to Antisemitic Author? It Sure Looks Like He Did.

Late last week, we learned that Rama Duwaji, wife of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, illustrated a book for Palestinian-American author and journalist Susan Abulhawa, who has a troubling history of antisemitism, including calling Jews “cockroaches,” “rootless parasites,” and “rabid demons.” 

That revelation came on the heels of the news that Duwaji liked dozens of social media posts celebrating the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack in Israel. Mamdani once again ran interference for his wife, claiming she got the freelance illustrating gig through a third party and didn’t know it was for Abulhawa. He called Abulhawa’s remarks “rephrensible,” which tracks with Mamdani’s habit of throwing friends and allies under the bus, it seems.

And we say “friends and allies” because it turns out Mamdani’s family has ties to Abulhawa, and many of them.

The New York Post has details:

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s family has crossed paths with the anti-Israel activist who called Jews “cockroaches” and “vampires,” despite his attempts to distance himself from her.

Susan Abulhawa, 55, is a member of the Advisory Policy Council of the Gaza Tribunal along with Mamdani’s Columbia University professor father, Mahmood Mamdani.

The group, which features just 29 members, was established in London in 2024 and describes itself as an independent “people’s tribunal” that collects evidence against Israel in Gaza. British Member of Parliament Jeremy Corbyn is another prominent figure within it.

…

But Abulhawa was a featured speaker at Columbia University’s Center for Palestine Studies which Mamdani Sr. — a professor in the school’s Department of Anthropology — has long been associated with, appearing in a bio on their website.

Abulhawa was also among the prominent signatories to a 2018 open letter to members of the Saudi royal family to urge them to release professor and women’s rights activist Hatoon al-Fassi. Mamdani’s filmmaker mother, Mira Nair, as well as his father were also among the signatories.

Keep reading

AOC And Mamdani Push FREE DAYCARE For Illegal Aliens In SPANISH Language Ad

Radical Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has joined forces with NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani to hawk free childcare to illegal immigrants in a cringeworthy Spanish-only video, right as the city is flat broke and floats massive tax increases on hardworking New Yorkers.

This shameless handout underscores the left’s playbook: shower foreign invaders with taxpayer dollars while Trump’s America First deportation machine gears up to clear out criminal elements.

In the video, Mamdani kicks things off by admitting his Spanish is rusty, and essentially admitting he’s there to smile and nod along.

Ocasio-Cortez jumps in, assuring him, “Don’t worry, Mayor.”

She then lays out the pitch in Spanish: “If your child is turning three or age four in 2026, you can enroll them in free 3-K or Pre-K in New York City.”

She adds, “Any New York City parent, regardless of your occupation, income or immigration status is eligible to sign their child up.”

Ocasio-Cortez adds that the application comes in over 200 languages, making it crystal clear this is aimed at non-English speakers, many of whom crossed the border illegally.

Keep reading

Radical Socialists AOC and Zohran Mamdani Team Up to Promote FREE DAYCARE for Illegal Aliens in All-Spanish Video — ‘America Last’ Agenda on Full Display!

Outrageous! Just when you thought the radical left couldn’t spit in the face of hard-working American citizens any harder, they find a new way to prioritize lawbreakers over taxpayers.

Radical socialists Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani have teamed up to push free daycare for illegal aliens, using American taxpayer dollars.

The duo released a video entirely in Spanish, with English subtitles, shamelessly instructing illegal immigrants on how to enroll their kids in NYC’s 3-K and Pre-K programs, regardless of immigration status.

The video, posted by the NYC Mayor’s Office, features Mamdani admitting his Spanish “isn’t the best” before handing off to AOC to deliver the sales pitch.

With American and NYC flags in the background, as if to mock our sovereignty, they emphasize that “any parent in New York City, regardless of occupation, income, or immigration status, is eligible to register their children.”

Mamdani goes on to highlight how families have been ‘suffering deep financial ruin’ from childcare costs up to $26,000 per year, but conveniently forgets that these programs are bankrolled by citizens who follow the law.

Keep reading

New York’s First Free Grocery Store Shows Yet Again That Socialism Doesn’t Work

Comrade Zohran Kwame Mamdani has been mayor of New York City for nearly eight weeks now, and he has not yet delivered on any of his lofty promises; instead, all New Yorkers have gotten out of his tenure so far is a lot of garbage in the streets. The cryptocurrency outfit Polymarket even beat the boy mayor to the punch on one of his campaign promises, opening up what it billed as “New York’s First Free Grocery Store.” The store was privately funded, not city-run, and only operated for five days, but that was plenty of time to demonstrate yet again that socialism, like Mamdani itself, doesn’t deliver on its promises, and only leaves people angry and disappointed.

Enthusiasm was initially high. Fox News reported Thursday that “in a busy stretch of restaurants and boutiques in the West Village, hundreds of New Yorkers queued up outside a pop-up shop offering free groceries.”

The people in the long queue, however, for the most part went away disappointed. New York’s First Free Grocery Store hit the wall of reality quite early in the day. One woman recounted: “I literally got here at 9:00 … and basically what they said is that they ran out of tickets.” The tickets were necessary to gain entry into the store, and just as grocery store shelves were so often empty in the old Soviet Union, New York’s First Free Grocery Store quickly ran out of tickets.

One man commented bitterly: “They told me that they ran out of tickets. I couldn’t get no more food.… I couldn’t get access to the store.” A security guard, clearly already weary with the charade only an hour after it started, shouted just after 9 a.m.: “Let’s go people, let’s go. Go home. Do not linger, do not look, do not watch. Please go home.”

It was a scene that could have unfolded in Moscow in 1980 or Beijing during the Cultural Revolution. Aside from the gulags, the line is the most distinguishing feature of socialist life. Even the New York Times wrote about it in 1985: “So common and pervasive are the lines that they have evolved their own etiquette, even their own slang. Shoppers in a busy store can have their place held in one line while they stand in another. Women with small children pass freely to the front. Other privileged people, ranging from disabled war veterans to recipients of the title ‘Hero of Socialist Labor,’ are also allowed to go to the head of the line. Goods, in this world, are ‘handed out,’ not sold, as if to underline that the issue is not one of cost or choice, but simply one of finding the stuff.”

One principal reason why this is so is that socialism, by confiscating the worker’s wealth and making it useless for him to try to work harder to get ahead, removes all incentive to do anything more than the minimum that will keep him out of the gulag. A grocer in a capitalist society can get rich by providing cheap and plentiful foodstuffs for the masses. In a socialist society, the groceries are even cheaper: they’re free. But there is no incentive for the worker to ensure their supply, as there is no reward for him in doing so. And so in the land where groceries are free, going without basic foodstuffs becomes a fact of life. 

Keep reading

NYC Socialist Mayor Eyes Activist Who Called CPS ‘Genocide for Black People’ to Lead Child Welfare Agency

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is considering Angela Burton, a 65-year-old activist known for her criticism of Child Protective Services (CPS), to lead the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS).

Burton has described CPS as a form of “slow extractive genocide for black people in America” in a 2023 X post and likened it to “child slavery” in another post from July 2023.

“Leave Black people alone. Your numbers and methods are treasure. Racist garbage in, racist garbage out. We don’t need CPS. CPS is Slow extractive Genocide for Black people in America. We know what you’re up to,” Burton wrote.

Currently, Burton serves on Children’s Rights’ New York Mandated Reporting Working Group, which seeks to narrow mandated reporting laws to reduce what it calls over-surveillance and family separations, particularly affecting Black, Latino, and low-income families.

Burton has also posted on X calling CPS a “grave and imminent threat” to children and families, accusing CPS employees of racism, and advocating for defunding police and the abolition of the “foster care industrial complex.”

Keep reading

Mamdani Is Collapsing Faster Than We Thought

You can’t say we didn’t warn New York what was going to happen if it elected Zohran Mamdani, but I gotta say, I don’t think anyone predicted it would start collapsing so quickly. But, alas, it has. That socialist utopia that Mamdani was supposed to deliver has instead turned into a slow-motion fiscal catastrophe a mere two months in — and even the liberal media is starting to notice.

Mamdani unveiled a $127 billion budget for fiscal year 2027 this week — a staggering $5 billion increase over the prior year.

But what’s $5 billion between socialists, right?

To put that into perspective, Mamdani’s proposed budget is actually larger than the budgets of 47 U.S. states, including Florida, which has nearly twice the population. And somehow, it still isn’t enough. The city is staring down a $5.4 billion deficit, with the real gap potentially closer to $12 billion when you do the actual math.

So what was his plan? Tax someone else.

Mamdani went straight to Albany looking for a handout, demanding that Gov. Kathy Hochul raise taxes on the “ultra-wealthy” and the most profitable corporations. When Hochul told him to pound sand and cut spending instead, he obviously couldn’t do that, and now he is looking at saddling homeowners with a 9.5% property tax hike.

Keep reading

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani Raiding Retirement and Health Funds

Mayor Zohran Mamdani is already short of funds for his socialist dream for New York City. Like a true communist, his plan is to increase taxes on homeowners while raiding retirement and healthcare funds. Ironically, communists are supposed to support the working man, but in reality, they support the non-working man who needs more money from the working man to keep from having to work.

On February 17, 2026, Mayor Mamdani presented his first preliminary budget and framed the city’s finances as a choice between two paths. He delivered an ultimatum to Governor Kathy Hochul and the state legislature: approve higher taxes on the wealthy or he would use the limited tools under his direct control to close a projected $5.4 billion shortfall.

His preferred path calls on Albany to raise personal income taxes by 2 percent on New Yorkers earning over $1 million and to increase corporate taxes on the most profitable companies. If the state refuses, he says he will pursue what he describes as a last resort: a 9.5 percent property tax hike, the first major increase in more than 20 years, affecting roughly 3 million residential units, along with drawing down approximately $1.2 billion from the city’s reserves, including the Rainy Day Fund and retiree health benefit trusts.

The proposal to tap retirement-related funds has generated the strongest backlash. Mamdani’s plan includes taking $229 million from the Retiree Health Benefits Trust, which pays health insurance premiums for retired city workers such as teachers, police officers, and sanitation workers.

Using money set aside for future medical costs to cover today’s operating deficit shifts long-term obligations into the current budget cycle. Budget watchdogs, including the Citizens Budget Commission, warn this would leave the city less prepared to meet healthcare costs for an aging workforce.

Mamdani insists he does not want to touch these funds and describes this as a harmful path he hopes to avoid. He is using the threat to pressure Governor Hochul into approving higher taxes on the wealthy.

Mamdani has also pushed to shift city pension investments away from what he calls harmful industries, including certain fossil fuel companies and firms tied to the conflict in Gaza. Pension trustees and union leaders argue this amounts to political intrusion into retirement assets and conflicts with their fiduciary duty to maximize returns for retirees.

By law, trustees must focus solely on financial performance. Critics contend that divesting from high-performing sectors for ideological reasons narrows the investment pool and can reduce long-term returns. Analysts noted that the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange significantly outperformed the S&P 500 in 2025.

Avoiding such assets means forfeiting gains that help keep pension funds solvent. Even a one or two percent underperformance compounded over time could create substantial funding gaps.

The dispute has escalated into a showdown with New York City Comptroller Mark Levine, the legal custodian of the pension funds. Levine recently announced plans to resume investing in Israel Bonds, calling them a long-term, secure investment that has never missed a payment in 80 years. Mamdani opposes the move, arguing the city should not support a foreign government involved in the Gaza conflict.

However, the mayor does not control the pension boards outright. The comptroller and union representatives hold significant seats, limiting Mamdani’s ability to force divestment. Critics say he is attempting to pressure the boards into adopting his position.

Keep reading

NYC Gets a Free Grocery Store, but It’s a Slap in the Face for Mamdani

New York City got its first free grocery store on Thursday, and yet it does more to discredit self-proclaimed democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani than do him any favors. The store wasn’t launched by the city but by Polymarket, a private prediction market where users bet on world events. More than 400 New Yorkers lined up for free groceries, praising the store as a much-needed relief during challenging financial times.

“Times are hard. Things are very expensive, so this helps,” Tori Hall, who was second in line outside the store, said. “It goes a long way.”

The Polymarket “free” grocery store opened Thursday and will operate as a five-day pop-up through Sunday, with the final day dedicated to donations. They added in a statement that the company had donated $1 million to the Food Bank for NYC “to help fight food insecurity across all five boroughs.” 

The initiative follows a similar stunt earlier this month by Kalshi, another prediction-market platform, which offered New Yorkers $50 in free groceries.

Mamdani responded to the latter stunt, posting a headline on X that read: “Heartbreaking: The worst person you know just made a great point.”

Keep reading

Zohran Mamdani’s ‘Tax the Rich’ Agenda Runs Into a Brick Wall of Reality as He’s Grilled by NY Lawmakers in Albany

New York City’s new democratic socialist (communist) Mayor Zohran Mamdani was grilled by state lawmakers in Albany this week over plans to fund his agenda by taxing the rich.

This is the difference between campaigning and governing. Many, if not all, of Mamdani’s ideas sound great on paper to leftists. Implementing them in real life is a different thing, entirely.

Some of the people who questioned him are undoubtedly wondering why he can’t even seem to be able to get the snow removed or pick up the city’s trash.

WRGB News reports:

“Honeymoon is over” Zohran Mamdani grilled by lawmakers as he proposes to “tax the rich”

Mamdani is asking for a 2 percent raise in personal income taxes to the top one percent of New York City residents, arguing someone making $1 million can afford $20,000 in more taxes, and that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act would deliver federal tax cuts to more than make up for that sum.

Lawmakers then had the opportunity to question Mamdani’s proposals on all of the above. Lawmakers from other cities shared concerns that if New York City received more money, they would receive less. Many asked about his proposal to increase taxes on the wealthy, and the impact it could have not just on New York City, but the rest of the State as well. Others questioned Mamdani’s actions in addressing antisemitism.

“Once the honeymoon is over, which I think you’ve just felt, you may well prefer three minutes to 10,” State Senator John Liu, Chairman of New York City Education Committee ( D ), told Mamdani at one point. “Speaking of which, you know, it’s mid-February, so I will respectfully say that the time for blaming past Mayors and Governors is passed. We need to hear the details of your plan. And it’s good to hear your revenue proposals.”

Keep reading