Tag: politics

Zohran Mamdani Appoints Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice, Pledges to Govern New York City as a Socialist

Mayor Zohran Mamdani became New York City’s first Muslim and South Asian mayor and the youngest in over a century when he was sworn in using a Quran. He used his inauguration to affirm he will govern as a democratic socialist, speaking before thousands outside City Hall alongside Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Mamdani pledged to focus his administration on working-class New Yorkers and said he would not abandon his principles despite criticism, framing New York as a proving ground for democratic socialist governance with an agenda centered on safety, affordability, and expanded public services funded by higher taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations.

It is ironic that he claims to help the working class by raising taxes. He also says he is focused on public safety, even as he has opposed policing and the incarceration of convicted criminals.

Mamdani began his first day by signing five executive orders. The first repealed all executive actions issued by former Mayor Eric Adams after Adams was federally indicted. The second appointed his five deputy mayors, establishing his democratic socialist administration.

For first deputy mayor, he chose Dean Fuleihan, 74, a Lebanese American who previously served as first deputy mayor under Bill de Blasio. Fuleihan oversaw the allocation of hundreds of millions of dollars in city funds to Universal Pre-K and early childhood education, significantly expanding pre-kindergarten access across New York City. To fund these social programs, the city budget grew from $72 billion to $85 billion, supporting affordable housing initiatives and other social equity programs.

The new deputy mayor for housing and planning is Leila Bozorg, who previously served as Eric Adams’s executive director of housing and played a key role in negotiating the City of Yes housing rezoning policy.

The initiative includes $5 billion in total investment, with $1 billion from state funding and $1 billion from the city allocated for housing capital. Key components include the Universal Affordability Preference, which provides a 20 percent density bonus for projects that dedicate additional space to permanently affordable housing for households earning 60 percent of the Area Median Income.

The program permits three- to five-story apartment buildings in low-density residential districts near public transit, while requiring that at least 20 percent of units in developments with 50 or more apartments be permanently affordable.

Julie Su, who served as acting U.S. Labor Secretary under Biden and California’s labor secretary from 2019-2021 but was not confirmed by the Senate despite two attempts, became Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice in a newly created role. Helen Arteaga Landaverde, CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst and the first Latina to serve as CEO of Elmhurst Hospital, became Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services.

Julia Kerson, previously deputy director of infrastructure under Governor Hochul and a former MTA vice president, became Deputy Mayor for Operations.

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Niqab-Wearing Muslim Woman Running for North Carolina Senate as a ‘Republican’ Repeatedly Tells Reporter ‘I Am Down for ISIS’ in Wild Interview

In a bizarre and revealing interview, Lakeshia Mashonda Ruddi Alston, the niqab-wearing Muslim woman running as the sole Republican candidate for North Carolina’s State Senate District 22, delivered a series of rambling and contradictory statements that have only intensified suspicions of her true intentions.

Alston, who has a documented history of voting Democrat since at least 2008, insists she’s a genuine Republican representing the party’s future. But her interview responses, filled with odd declarations, have left many questioning whether this is a deliberate attempt to sabotage the GOP primary.

Alston, a self-described educator, entrepreneur, and community advocate with no prior political experience, has no active campaign website, policy platform, or tied social media presence.

In the Daily Caller interview, Alston attempted to defend her Republican credentials and policy stances, but her responses were often incoherent and just outright strange.

The Daily Caller reports:

When asked what conservative principles she considers important, Alston replied: “I am down for ISIS.”

Alston five times throughout the interview said something to the effect of “I am down for ISIS … I stand for ISIS,” when appearing to refer to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Alston did not clarify whether she was referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement when contacted for follow-up.

“I am down for ISIS. The police tell you that you gotta freeze. You have to stop. I can’t go on to another country without a passport,” Alston said. “I did experience students who did have some interaction with ISIS. And was it sad? Yes, it was very sad. I cried. I empathize with them, which is why I am for ISIS.”

“I am a Republican,” Alston told the DCNF. “I’ve matured in my own revelation of what the Republican Party represents, and it looks like me.”

“Are we going back to segregation time?” Alston asked in response to a question about criticism of her GOP affiliation. “Because, I’m a Republican, and I don’t really understand the aims and the values of what that party represents. So I’m just going to be taken back at what somebody looks like, because we’re used to the Democrats pussy footin’ around.”

In a confusing anecdote, Alston described a “Chinese little boy” friend from Jordan High School whose fingernails were affected by the Hiroshima bombing, despite Hiroshima being in Japan, not China.

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Virginia’s Deep State Deepens Under Spanberger

Virginia’s Democratic Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger has displayed incredible audacity with her nomination of Stanley Meador to be the next Virginia secretary for public safety and homeland security. The choice provides a jarring indication of the radical agenda that Spanberger, a former CIA agent, intends to pursue in her administration. Stanley Meador was the Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the FBI’s Richmond, Virginia, office that issued the infamous FBI memo targeting “radical-traditionalist Catholics.”  

In June, Meador was one of many agents fired, demoted, or put on leave by new FBI Director Kash Patel. The New York Times rushed to their defense, of course, characterizing the dismissals as “retaliation” and “politicization” of the Bureau. The Times story on June 5, 2025 claimed that the agents were targeted on an “enemies list” of FBI employees who were being purged for not being personally loyal to Donald Trump. Here are the opening paragraphs of the Times story, titled “As Ousters Continue, F.B.I. Singles Out Employee Over Friendship With Trump Critic:

The F.B.I. has targeted another round of employees who ran afoul of conservatives, forcing out two veteran agents in Virginia — one of whom is friends with a critic of President Trump — and punishing another in Las Vegas, according to several people familiar with the matter.

Two of the men, Spencer Evans and Stanley Meador, are senior agents who ran F.B.I. field offices in Las Vegas and Richmond, Va. The third, Michael Feinberg, a top deputy in the Norfolk, Va., office, had ties to a former agent whom Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, identified in his book as part of the so-called deep state.

The moves add to the transfers, ousters and demotions that have rippled across the F.B.I. as Mr. Patel and Dan Bongino, his No. 2, promise to remake the country’s premier law enforcement agency. The wave of changes, current and former agents say, amount to little more than retaliation, underscoring what they describe as the politicization of the F.B.I. as its leaders seek to mollify Mr. Trump’s supporters.

Naturally, the Times’ spin purposely ignores the facts concerning the agents’ egregious actions, including their participation in the illegal, unconstitutional, and immoral weaponization of the FBI against President Donald Trump and his advisors, appointees, and supporters. More on that down below, but first, back to Governor-elect Spanberger.

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NYPD Found Box of Abandoned Police Uniforms Just Days Before Mamdani Was Sworn In

The discovery might have been uniforms, but the theories about it are all over the map.

New York City police are investigating just how a box full of NYPD blues showed up abandoned this week near a cemetery in Brooklyn, according to the New York Daily News.

The fact that it occurred only days before the infamously anti-police Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani was sworn in only added fuel to the fire.

According to the newspaper, the box was reported by a 911 caller about 8:40 p.m. Tuesday.

Video posted to social media showed police officers combing through the clothing, which was eventually moved to the 66th Precinct station for safety, the New York Daily News reported.

Authorities are trying to establish just how the unusual find came about, but that didn’t stop online speculation.

Some users of the social media platform X suggested it was a sign of upcoming resignations from police who don’t want to serve under a Mamdani administration.

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President Trump Issues the First Vetoes of His Second Term

It took about 11 months, but President Donald Trump has finally issued the first vetoes of his second term.

And like most things involving the president, the moves aren’t without their critics — including some you might not normally expect pushback from.

The “Miccosukee Reserved Area Amendments Act” is a bill aimed at expanding the land set aside for the Miccosukee Tribe inside Everglades National Park by officially including a section known as Osceola Camp.

Trump had a couple of issues with this.

The residential community in that area “was constructed in 1935, without authorization, in a low area that was raised with fill material,” Trump’s explanation read.

“None of the current structures in the Osceola Camp are over 50 years old, nor do they meet the other criteria to be considered for listing in the National Register of Historic Places,” Trump wrote to the House.

He added that, “the Miccosukee Tribe has actively sought to obstruct reasonable immigration policies that the American people decisively voted for when I was elected.” That appears to be a direct reference to the tribe’s publicized opposition — including a lawsuit against the Trump administration — to the “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center in Florida, as noted by The Associated Press.

The “Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act,” meanwhile, is a bill designed to make it easier for rural Colorado communities to complete a long‑planned water pipeline project that will facilitate drinking water to people in the Arkansas River Valley.

Trump appeared to take specific issue with the price tag and repayment plans for this project.

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This Line From Zohran Mamdani’s Inauguration Speech Should Terrify Freedom Loving Americans

Zohran Mamdani had a second swearing in ceremony in New York City today, in which he gave a speech that contained a shocking line.

The new mayor of New York City actually said these words out loud:

“We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.”

Here is the line in full context, via Real Clear Politics:

NEW YORK CITY MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI: I welcome the change. For too long, those fluent in the good grammar of civility have deployed decorum to mask agendas of cruelty. Many of these people have been betrayed but in our administration their needs will be met. Their hopes and dreams and interests will be reflected transparently in government.

They will shape our future and if for too long these communities have existed as distinct from one another, we will draw this city closer together. We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism. If our campaign demonstrated that we yearn for solidarity then let this government foster it. Because no matter what you eat, how you pray or where you come from, the words that most define us are the two we all share, New Yorkers.

First of all, ‘rugged individualism’ is Americanism. It’s what built this country. A rejection of this idea by the mayor of New York City is unsettling enough, but the second part of that sentence is even worse.

The warmth of collectivism? He is coming right out and admitting that he is a communist. Collectivism is a central tenet of the communism that destroyed the Soviet Union and starved millions of people in China under Mao.

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IDIOTS: Zohran Mamdani Supporters Chant ‘Tax the Rich’ as Bernie ‘Three Houses’ Sanders Speaks

As Bernie Sanders was speaking at Zohran Mamdani’s inauguration on Thursday, a number of people in the crowd broke into a chant of ‘tax the rich.’

The stupidity on display here is appalling. Do these people really believe that their lives will improve if the government forcefully takes more money away from other people? Do they think the New York City government is going to take money from others and give it to them? Do they honestly believe that if ‘the rich’ are forced to pay more in taxes, it is going to fund programs that will benefit them?

This is the politics of envy, plain and simple.

The New York Post reports:

‘Tax the rich’ chant breaks out as Bernie Sanders swears in NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani

A raucous chant of “tax the rich” broke out as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders blasted the wealthy and called out “hatred and divisiveness” before swearing in fellow democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani as New York City mayor.

“At a time in our country’s history when we are seeing too much hatred, too much divisiveness and too much injustice, thank you for electing Zohran Mamdani as your mayor,” Sanders said outside City Hall.

He then argued that Mamdani’s socialist agenda, including free buses and taxing the rich was not “radical,” sparking the chant.

After Sanders administered the ceremonial oath of office to Mamdani, the new mayor addressed the crowd, saying he planned to govern “expansively and audaciously.”

For too long, he argued, New York belonged to the “wealthy and well connected,” but no longer, Mamdani vowed.

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Mamdani Names Lawyer Who Defended al-Qaeda Terrorist As City’s Top Attorney

On Tuesday, Socialist New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced the appointment of Ramzi Kassem as the city’s top attorney.

Kassem gained notoriety for defending al-Qaeda terrorist Ahmed al-Darbi when he served as lead counsel.

In 2014, al-Darbi pled guilty in connection with an al-Qaeda terrorist plot to bomb a French oil tanker near Yemen in 2002, leaving a civilian dead and several others injured. He was convicted in 2017 and ultimately transferred to Saudi Arabia in 2018.

Al-Darbi’s brother-in-law was Khalid al-Mihdhar, one of the five hijackers on American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon during the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The New York Post reports that in 2009, “Kassem founded a legal clinic at CUNY, which offers free legal representation to Muslims and other communities in New York City.”

The nonprofit, Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility (CLEAR) is largely funded by progressive philanthropist George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, which have given the clinic more than $3 million, public records show.

The Associated Press and The New York Times reported at the time that Kassem said, “While it may not make him whole, my hope is that repatriation at least marks the end of injustice for Ahmed… He had 16 long and painful years in captivity.”

Kassem is also part of the legal team representing radical Islamist Mahmoud Khalil.

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Hardworking boy, 17, died mysteriously while working at Nebraska hog farm owned by governor and run by his daughter… then officials frustrated his mom’s efforts to find out why

A teenager in Nebraska died under mysterious circumstances while working at a hog farm founded by the state’s governor and run by his daughter, with officials accused of neglecting a thorough investigation for his grieving mother.

Zach Panther, 17, was found dead six weeks after starting a job at Beaver Valley Pork farms in St. Edward, Nebraska – a tiny town with about 700 residents roughly two hours west of Omaha – last April 1.

The teen had been sealing cracks in a barn with chemical-laden spray foam before his supervisor found him on the floor, according to The New York Times.

Panther’s death was not seen by any other farm employees, and there were no signs of foul play.

Beaver Valley Pork is one of the hog operations linked to Pillen Family Farms, a family business that has owned or operated more than 100 farms across Nebraska.

The company was founded by state governor Jim Pillen in 1993. His daughter Sarah has been the co-chief executive of the business since January 2020, per her public LinkedIn profile.

Investigations by government agencies couldn’t determine how the 17-year-old died and were allegedly slowed down by mistakes and poor information sharing.

‘My son is dead,’ Justy Riggs-Panther, Zach’s mom, told the outlet. ‘There ought to be answers.’

After her son’s death, the sheriff and deputies from the Boone County Sheriff’s Office only allegedly examined the room where he died, and not much else.

The Nebraska farm allegedly blocked timely testing from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), while a recommended blood test for spray foam chemicals was also disrupted when the lab accidentally destroyed the usable sample.

Sarah Pillen, the co-CEO of Pillen Family Farms, said the company had ‘fully cooperated’ with the investigation into Zach’s death.

She told OSHA of Zach’s death when it happened, which was marked down in the call log by an agency employee with notes including ‘had been foaming’, ‘insulation’, ‘head injury’ and ‘poss[ible] medical episode.’

‘While we share the frustration that some of the issues which led to his passing remain unanswered, we understand those investigations have been closed, and there have been no safety violations attributable to the workplace,’ she told The New York Times.

However, Sarah Pillen was accused of refusing entry to an OSHA industrial hygienist who came to inspect the farm.

‘We simply requested that OSHA follow our established biosecurity protocols,’ she said.

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Heiress sparks new turn in Somali fraud scandal by speculating link to MURDER of Minnesota Democrat lawmaker

A Minnesota state senator has slammed actress and socialite Sara Foster after she linked the murder of Democrat lawmaker Melissa Hortman to the erupting Somali fraud probe. 

Hortman and her husband Mark were fatally shot in their Brooklyn Park home by suspect Vance Luther Boelter earlier this year.

Boelter allegedly planned to target 45 liberal lawmakers and abortion providers, according to police.

But Foster, the 44-year-old daughter of Canadian record producer David Foster, took to X on Saturday to suggest Hortman’s death is linked to investigations into alleged fraud in the Somali community in Minnesota.

Scrutiny over the state’s spending intensified this week after a viral video emerged showing an apparently empty daycare in Hennepin County which has allegedly received $4 million in taxpayers’ money. 

‘So are we just planning on pretending like her murder isn’t connected to the multi billion fraud scandal just uncovered? Mmmmkay,’ Foster wrote.

Foster wrote the comment alongside a video showing Hortman weeping after she had cast the lone Democratic vote in favor of repealing eligibility for undocumented adults to access MinnesotaCare just days before she was killed. 

Foster’s remarks were panned by Republican State Senator Julia Coleman, who shut down the ‘conspiracy theory’, stating ‘the fraud had nothing to do with the assassinations’.

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