New documentary in the works about Zohran Mamdani that's bound to be sugarcoated

It appears the leftists in Hollywood decided to give NYC's first Muslim mayor more backing for the sake of it, by producing a documentary all about him that's bound to be mega-biased as can be:

A new documentary will chronicle openly socialist Zohran Mamdani’s rise to become Mayor of New York City, a journey that began in 2023.

The documentary will be directed Julia Bacha, who also serves as the creative director of the non-profit Just Vision, which reportedly tells stories that shine “a spotlight on the Israel-Palestine conflict,” per TheWrap.

“It was her interest in Israel and Palestine that led Bacha to Mamdani three years ago,” noted the outlet. “The Brazil-born filmmaker heard in 2023 about a group of New York activists who were calling for charities to stop using tax-deductible donations to fund Israeli settlements.”

Bacha said the documentary began as a focus on whether Mamdani and his team of pro-Palestinian lawmakers will be able to hold their assembly seats through New York’s next election cycle, but it instead morphed into him climbing to become mayor. She reportedly captured over 200 hours of footage chronicling this rise and was especially captivated by the influence of his filmmaker mother, Mira Nair.

For now, this is certainly telling enough. Another disturbing thing about Mamdani was his being "sworn in" to position as mayor on a koran instead of a bible. That says all you need to know what's going wrong in the USA, much as in Europe. This looks to be yet another documentary that gives the whole concept a bad name.

Zohran Mamdani's transition team includes quite a few anti-Israel activists

NYC's soon to be 1st Muslim mayor has predictably arranged for a number of anti-Israel activists to be on his transition team:

Waleed Shahid describes himself as a democratic political strategist. He has a track record of mocking Jewish outlets and making anti-Israel comments on social media.

On October 7, 2023, the day of Hamas’ massacre, Shahid tweeted, “Similar to violent militias in Ireland, South Africa, and many places around the world, Hamas is also a byproduct of Israel’s violent policies of occupation and the second-class status of Palestinians.”

Responding to his appointment, the current mayor Adams administration said, “Waleed Shahid’s role in Mamdani’s transition team isn’t a surprise - it’s confirmation. Shahid’s track record of mocking Jewish outlets aligns perfectly with Mamdani’s own silence on antisemitism.”

“Mamdani didn’t just hire Shahid - he built a pipeline for activists who treat Jew-hatred as a punchline. Meanwhile, Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn can’t walk safely, and Mamdani’s response is more committees stacked with the same extremists who cheer BDS.”

That's one beginning example of what Mamdani's staff is bound to look like very soon. Another is Tamika Mallory, and there's more about her here too:

New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s transition team announced on Monday includes a prominent activist with a history of alleged antisemitism.

Tamika Mallory, a leader of the Women’s March movement, stepped down from the board of the feminist group in 2019 amid allegations of antisemitism among the organization’s leadership.

Mallory had lionized the antisemitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and refused to condemn his discrimination against Jews. Mallory also reportedly said that Jews were responsible for the oppression of people of color, a charge she denied.

If that's the kind of libel she's going to spew, it's chilling to think, what if she's fully okay with Islamic regimes normalizing slavery? No doubt, there'll be plenty of repellent figures on the municipal staff and in Gracie Mansion soon enough, one more reason why NYC is clearly a most insufferable place to be at this point.

Trump did not take an objective position with Mamdani at White House meeting

When president Donald Trump met NYC's first Muslim mayor, Zohran Mamdani, at the White House for a special meeting, no firm stance on the latter's negative leanings was taken:

President Donald Trump offered an optimistic view of the direction of New York City after meeting with Democratic socialist Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani at the White House on Friday.

During a press conference that followed, Trump said the two found common ground in their desires to reduce the cost of living, while also cracking down on crime. He also acknowledged that Mamdani has “views that are a little out there,” adding that he’s likely to change.

“I feel very confident that he could do a very good job. I think he is gonna surprise some conservative people, actually,” Trump told reporters from the Oval Office.

Forget it, this does nothing to properly address the bad things Mamdani said during his campaign, and only excuses him for the offensive statements he made about Trump too. In fact, it dampens the impact of Trump's previous meeting with South Africa's president Cyril Ramaphosa, where the POTUS took a more objective stance regarding some of the most awful things going on the country Ramaphosa's leading, including, but not limited to, anti-white racism. Sure, Trump may have hinted he's ready to withhold funding for NYC if Mamdani follows through on anything bad, but even so, this is not the tour de force White House meeting many may have been hoping for. And that's a real shame. It won't improve the USA's situation.

Update: as noted here, Trump also failed to address Mamdani's anti-Israel rants:

After the meeting, Mamdani repeated his claims that the government of Israel is carrying out "genocide in Gaza," and said that the U.S. government is funding those actions.

"“I shared with the president in our meeting about the concern that many New Yorkers have about wanting their tax dollars to go toward the benefit of New Yorkers and their ability to afford basic dignity. There’s a desperate need not only for the following of human rights but also the following through on the promises we’ve made New Yorkers. We've spoken about the Israeli government committing genocide and I’ve spoken about our government funding it."

President Trump did not respond to those remarks during the meeting with reporters. When Mamdani was asked about the president's efforts to advance agreements in the Middle East, he replied "I appreciate all efforts toward peace. We’re tired of seeing our tax dollars fund endless wars, and I also believe that we have to follow through on the international human rights, and I know that still today those are being violated, and that continues to be work that has to be done, no matter where we’re speaking of.”

Later, Trump was asked about Mamdani's threat to detain Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he comes to New York, and he briefly answered, "We did not discuss that."

In addition, Mamdani's spokeswoman Dora Pekec, referenced his recent objections to the Nefesh B'Nefesh event held in a New York synagogue: "The Mayor-elect has discouraged the language used at last night’s protest and will continue to do so. He believes every New Yorker should be free to enter a house of worship without intimidation, and that these sacred spaces should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law."

Through his spokeswoman, Mamdani continues to take a double-standard on the issue of immigrating to Israel, and Trump's failure to discuss Mamdani's use of a forked tongue approach is hugely disappointing.

Why all these Mamdanis keep getting spawned in the USA

Liel Liebovitz looks at how a serious defeat was suffered in east coast elections in the USA, what with Zohran Mamdani now NYC's first Muslim mayor, and how such awful politicians end up elected. And something to consider is that Republicans are blowing it badly, which only serves to draw attention away from these pressing topics:

On one side stand figures like Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who promise a return to classical conservatism: a muscular foreign policy, aggressive free-market economics, and an unrelenting fight against the progressive chaos that took root in America under Barack Obama and Joe Biden. On the other side are candidates like Vice President J.D. Vance, pulling the party in a very different direction.

A troubling example of that direction came just last week. Vance spoke at a Turning Point USA event, the conservative movement founded by his late friend Charlie Kirk, who was murdered earlier this year by a left-wing gunman. A student in the audience asked Vance: "I'm a Christian," he said, "and I don't understand why we support Israel, a Jewish state that doesn't seem to share our values."

Vance could have easily explained the importance of the US-Israel strategic alliance. He could have emphasized the obvious point that, in a war between a Jewish democracy and an Islamist terrorist organization, there should be no question where America stands. Instead, Vance mumbled something about Trump and how Israel doesn't tell him what to do, then veered into theology: "The reality is that Jews don't believe Jesus Christ is the Messiah," said Vance, a Catholic convert baptized in 2019. "My approach has always been that if we have disagreements, we should discuss them publicly."

Imagine for a moment a serious presidential candidate declaring that Americans should publicly debate whether Catholic politicians can be trusted to represent voters rather than follow the pope's orders from Rome. Or whether Hindus, who don't believe in one God, should be allowed to run for office. Such questions sound absurd, and rightly so. The separation of church and state is a bedrock principle of the American constitution. So what made the vice president, one of the GOP's highest-ranking figures, think that the right response to a political question was to turn it into a religious one?

The answer, in short, is Tucker Carlson.

The popular television host was ousted from Fox News in 2023 under complex circumstances. He launched his own podcast and wasted no time steering it in a new ideological direction. In February 2024 he traveled to Moscow for a warm interview with Vladimir Putin, who claimed, among other things, that Poland was to blame for the Nazi invasion in World War II and that Volodymyr Zelensky was the villain in his war with Ukraine. Carlson then toured Moscow's subway and shops, telling his audience that such order and cleanliness couldn't be found in any American city.

Some raised eyebrows, lavish praise for Russia and propaganda that demeaned the US hardly sound conservative. But Carlson was just getting started. Months before the presidential election, he hosted online influencer Darryl Cooper, who told viewers that Hitler was the real victim of World War II and that Winston Churchill refused to compromise with the "peace-loving" German chancellor only because a small group of people—no need to specify who, but they control the banks and the media—pressured him.

Last month, Carlson invited an even viler guest: Nick Fuentes, a social-media personality who has repeatedly expressed admiration for Hitler and Stalin.

What drove the supposedly conservative pundit to such extremes? The reasons are many, but the overall direction is clear: Carlson, and now Vance after him, understand that to capture the imagination of young and apathetic voters, one must sound extreme and exciting.

What's told about Vance is certainly galling, because his complaint about Jews not believing in Jesus was entirely uncalled for. It would be wrong to complain that far eastern countries like India and Japan don't believe in one god, so why is Vance dampening the impact as he is? What matters is whether even non-monotheists can be vigilant and realists. Doesn't that matter to Vance any more than anybody else?

It's also troubling that the movement founded by Kirk, a pro-Israel guy who was tragically murdered, appears to be hosting somebody with "values" that are anathema to what Kirk stood for. Is Turning Point USA deteriorating? Who knows? But Vance is certainly not setting a good example here, and if he keeps this up, it will only make things worse, and take away attention from the next Mamdanis who're planning their run for office in the USA. Division on the right is one of the problems that led to where we are now.

Resignations of New York authority employees begin as result of Mamdani election

The election of Zohran Mamdani as NYC's first Muslim mayor has now led to significant resignations of city officials who find his policies and other positions abhorrent. For example, the fire department commissioner:

Fire Commissioner Robert Tucker handed in his resignation Wednesday morning — just one day after Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor, The Post has learned.

Tucker, a proud Jewish philanthropist and businessman, informed Mayor Eric Adams that he would step down from the role he has held for just over 12 months on December 19, according to sources.

The FDNY boss was concerned about Mamdani’s anti-Israel hostility, with a source noting that Tucker’s support of the Jewish state “does not align with the new mayor.”

Tucker may have only held his position for about a year, but his departure from the job is understandable. Also significant is the number of police officials resigning:

In one of the least surprising developments since Zohran Mamdani won election to become mayor of New York City, the New York Post is reporting that the exodus of NYPD cops is already beginning. The Post reports that there was already a surge in police officers resigning or taking retirement in the month prior to election day.

The NYPD saw a 35% hike in cops of all ranks leaving in October – 245 police officers compared to 181 in the same month last year, according to Police Pension Fund data.

’Morale is down because everyone is concerned about the policies Mamdani wants to put in place,’ said Detectives Endowment Association President Scott Munro.

This is in response to comments Mamdani has made during his campaign, where he said he would get rid of New York’s Strategic Response Group (SRG), which handles crowd control when there are riots, protests, “civil disorders,” and big events. You often see them clad with neon-green and black uniforms, sometimes riding on bicycles or using bicycles for crowd control. SRG is housed within New York’s Special Operations Bureau.

[...] The Post added that compounding the “plummeting post-Election Day morale is that Mamdani has also said he would create a new Department of Community Safety (DCS) that would dispatch mental health professionals to 911 calls about people in crisis, rather than cops.

“’How’s that going to work when the person pulls out a gun or a knife?’ a Bronx cop pondered.”

What's also chilling, as mentioned before, is if Mamdani turns whatever's left of the police into a sharia patrol movement. Of course, even before this, there were signs the police were more than perfectly willing to arrest all the wrong people and take blame-the-victim positions, recalling an Israeli women was arrested for defending herself from Hamas supporters a year ago, so some could find it hard to feel sorry if they weren't doing much to differentiate themselves from district attorney Alvin Bragg, whose policies have already precipitated disasters for NYC.

The Big Apple used to have such a good reputation. Now, it's destined to become rotten, and an utter fiasco clogged with all the worst of criminals, misogynists and racists.

Jewish faustian pact-makers

A sad but valid point is made about the role left-wing Jews had in Zohran Mamdani's election as NYC's first Muslim mayor:

Since Hamas' surprise October 7 attack, even before Israel itself grasped the massacre's full magnitude, Jews and Israelis worldwide shifted into "hasbara mode." Calls for Palestinian liberation that morphed into violent anti-Israel protests on the world's most prestigious university campuses emerged within hours, while Israel hadn't yet begun processing its wounds, and more than two years later, it's clear Israel experienced a spectacular failure concerning its global image.

However, a widespread opinion in Israel is that antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment will be our lot in the world, so there's no need to invest such extensive efforts in repairing the tiny state's reputation in the international arena. However, the outcomes of the elections in New York, Virginia, and New Jersey make it clear that we cannot afford to rest on our laurels.

The Israeli "it'll be fine" attitude won't cut it, facing the historic victory of Muslim, socialist, and anti-Israel candidate Zohran Mamdani, who became the first Muslim mayor of America's largest city. His election – anticipated after a widely successful campaign – clarifies the American public's mindset, and more troubling, the separation of many Diaspora Jewish community members from the Jewish state.

Vote analysis shows approximately 33% of New York Jews voted for Mamdani. This is an astonishing figure. How do we explain it? By dividing into two voter groups. The first voted for Mamdani despite his anti-Israel positions – refusing to recognize the necessity of disarming Hamas, declining to acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state, threatening to halt economic cooperation with the state and Israeli companies, and advancing slogans like "globalize the intifada" – a decision driven by opposition to Trump, and possibly support for Mamdani's New York City affordability campaign. The second voter group, which some argue raises even deeper concern, voted for Mamdani precisely because of his anti-Israel positions, with which they identify.

"NYC Jews for Zohran," according to the group's members, organized for months to secure the socialist candidate's victory, with some even donating to his campaign. They comprise part of Mamdani's 38% of voters, including non-Jewish residents, whose anti-Israel stances drew them to support him. Put differently, the appeal of Mamdani as a New York mayoral candidate was partially unconnected to his actual city policies.

Well even before this sorry election, there was only so much about NYC that made me decide I'd rather not visit there again, and this is just compounding my viewpoint. There are Israeli citizens who live in areas like NYC too, replete with voter registration, and no doubt, there's plenty of them who're just as guilty of electing Mamdani as any of his other minions. As I may have noted before, one of the worst things about this election is that it's also a defeat for 9-11 Families, whom we must hope won't associate with Mamdani, and any memorial services in coming years should not be done with him around. NYC's on its way to becoming a cesspool, and this election just precipitates where it's going.

Update: also worth reading, there's this item that voices concerns at how socialism is making gains as a belief in the USA.

Update 2: there's now discussion among the Republicans of barring federal funding to NYC for as long as Mamdani's mayor.

USA's Catholic bishop council must stop defending Islam, which is already becoming far too established stateside

Maureen Mullarky addresses the disturbing case of the USA's Conference of Catholic Bishops acting as apologist for the Religion of Peace, something previously alluded to by news sites like Front Page:

Earlier this month, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) published “Islamophobia: A Guide for U.S. Catholics on Anti-Muslim Bigotry.” Showcased on the USCCB website with a lovely Islamic design cover, this 15-page booklet exhorts Catholics to “address the disturbing phenomenon of anti-Muslim sentiment in our times.”

Introduced by the co-chairs of the National Catholic-Muslim Dialogue (NCMD) — Bishop Elias Lorenzo of Newark and Imam Kareem Irfan — the USCCB declares dire need to counter “the rising tide of anti-Muslim sentiment that has been present for decades.”

The guide uses the term “Islamophobia” as a blunt tool for erasing the Islam from Islamic terrorism. It runs interference for a bellicose religious culture that began its intended conquest of the world in the seventh century.

Discomfort with Islam Deemed a Moral Defect

The USCCB booklet appeared within days of the introduction of a bill by Sen. Ted Cruz to address the steady massacre of Christians in Nigeria by Islamic terrorists. Ongoing jihadist slaughter in DR Congo brought censure from Pope Leo in July after 49 Christians were hacked to death during a service. Some 64 Catholics were killed in Ntoyo, Congo, on Sept. 8-9. Christians are attacked and subjugated in more countries than any other religious group, according to The Washington Post.

That they'd issue such an atrocious form of apologia does a terrible disfavor to victims of Islamic violence everywhere, and is a pure betrayal of Christian adherents, no matter the sect they belong to, whether Catholic, Protestant or Orthodox. This is an utter disgrace. It's also repulsive they'd compare "islamophobia" with antisemitism, because it also ignores Muslim antisemitism of the sort that led to October 7, 2023. And what influences the defense of the Religion of Peace? As some say, follow the money:

Once-Catholic Georgetown has been shilling for Islam for at least two decades. Cooperation began in earnest in 2005 with the gift of a $20 million endowment fund from Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. It was given to expand the existing Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown’s prestigious Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. In recognition of the tycoon’s support, director John Esposito renamed the center the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU).

Grants and contracts from Qatar, worth more than $927.6 million, flowed to ACMCU between 2005 and 2023. Much of that funding is reported to have been routed through the Qatar Foundation. The foundation is a tentacle of the Qatari regime, according to the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy. The foundation has ties to the Safa Network, a nexus of charities that work to propagate Islamist ideology, as reported by the Middle East Forum. In 2005, Georgetown opened a satellite campus in Qatar supported by partnership with the Qatar Foundation.

Wow, the same Qatar that harbored Hamas minions for many years. When will anybody in the GOP wake up and take issue with continued relations with Qatar if this is how they're going to operate?

On a related note, an army veteran, Mark Lucas, who fought in Afghanistan, has warned about Islam's infiltrations into the USA, including the now sadly elected NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani years after September 11, 2001:

The radical jihadists who attacked America on 9/11 dramatically changed the course of American history. Personally, it was the catalyst that encouraged me and a new generation of warfighters to join the military. We wanted to kill the monsters responsible for that horrific act of terrorism.

In 2010, I deployed to Afghanistan as an Infantry Rifle Platoon Leader. It was the deadliest year of Operation Enduring Freedom. I saw radical Islam up close and personal. I believe it poses the greatest threat to Western civilization. The Afghans brutally beat their wives, daughters, and sisters. Young boys were frequently victims of rape. During Key Leader Engagements with local Afghan leaders, we would be served tea by boys who were sold into slavery and sexually abused. Our local Afghan interpreter told us that many children were sold into sex slavery by their parents in exchange for educational opportunities. He proudly informed me that many of these boys would return to murder their parents.

My unit included several women who served on our Female Engagement Team. These women were tough, brave, and noticeably blonde. My soldiers constantly had to guard them from our supposed allies in the Afghan army. During foot patrols, squad leaders physically kept local men from lingering near them. Without the protection of my men, these women would have been beaten and raped.

As Americans, we value our families and protecting the innocent. These values often do not appear in Islamic culture. I saw children trapped in sexual slavery by powerful members of the Afghan government. In large families, parents would sell their children to be raped and abused. This was a normal part of their culture.

My experience was not unique. Any service member who deployed will tell you he saw or heard of similar atrocities. Those of us who served outside the wire in hostile territory witnessed the horrors of radical Islam firsthand. I feel obligated to share this experience, even if it’s not politically correct.

Radical Islam is not being contained to Middle Eastern countries. It is rapidly spreading to the west. Multiple child rape gangs have operated for decades in the United Kingdom. Cities like London discovered that thousands of teenage girls were being targeted for grooming and rape. Many of the offenders were Pakistani men who were involved in the city’s growing Muslim community. The rape gangs were discovered in as many as 50 cities in the U.K. In Sweden, migrant men of non-European origin commit 84 percent of assault rapes in Sweden. An Afghan in Sweden is 69 times more likely to commit an aggravated rape than a Swede is.

This terrifying behavior is coming to the United States. In 2024, Qalinle Ibrahim Dirie, a 42-year-old Somali migrant living in Minnesota, abducted and raped a 12-year-old girl. Following his conviction, the local Islamic center submitted a letter of support on his behalf. The letter stated that Dirie “enriches the lives of those around him” and attributed his crime to “the challenge of starting over in a new culture.” After receiving this endorsement, Dirie received a 12-year sentence this summer, the minimum allowed under Minnesota law.

We are seeing rapid demographic shifts in the Midwest as leftists import these radicals. Dearborn, Michigan, has the largest per capita Muslim population in the country, with 54.5 percent of the city’s residents being either Middle Eastern or North African. This makes it the first U.S. city with a majority Arab population. It is also home to the largest mosque in North America. Throughout the U.S., there are about 4.5 million Muslims, with 58 percent of them being first-generation immigrants. A majority of these Muslims live in states with large cities such as New York, Illinois, and California.

It's chilling to think of how the Catholic council of bishops acts oblivious to all this. Chip Roy's also addressed the encroachment of Islam in the USA:

Mamdani is the poster child for the modern Democrat Party, hiding behind the veneer of pro-immigration policy to foster a purposeful, planned, and strategic effort to advance an “Islamic cultural revolution” designed to fundamentally alter America’s identity. This shift will transform America from a melting pot into a loaded cannon in which the least of our worries will be thousands of Muslims taking to the streets for prayer and parades, or a viral video showing a young woman proclaiming her acceptance of Islam in Times Square, a location often called “the center of the universe.”

But this cultural transformation is not limited to New York City. It is occurring nationwide. Hamtramck, Michigan, a small city within Detroit, has been “flooded” with immigrants and is the first city in the United States to have an all-Muslim elected city council.

One of the reasons for that is because non-Muslims opposed to LGBT ideology may have been instrumental in getting the whole council elected. Such alliances were dangerous, and will come with a heavy price. And it's shameful how women sell out to the Religion of Peace, which is like acceptance of slavery. Here's some more on Mamdani's election:

The race’s outcome indicates a strong preference among NYC voters for the type of communist-style policies Mamdani has touted in years past and throughout his campaign.

It's said that many of the voters who brought Mamdani into power are foreigners, and undoubtably, that includes plenty of Muslims too. And Jarret Stepman notes:

Police deployments to crime hotspots in the city are likely to decline. Many long-time NYPD officers will almost certainly leave the force. Whether Mamdani and the City Council actively defund the police or not may be of little consequence since the mayor will have a great deal of control over how the police will be used. [...]

Mamdani has promised to turn the subway into something akin to a homeless shelter and will undoubtedly make travel on it increasingly dangerous. You are probably more likely to be stabbed or assaulted on a bus ride going forward, but at least they will be “free,” I guess.

Don't be shocked if Mamdani gradually turns the police into a sharia-style outfit. There've already been chilling signs of similar movements there over the years. Stuff like this is exactly why I'd rather not visit the Big Apple ever again. It's hugely regrettable a once famous cityscape had to end up being reduced to this kind of monstrosity, and now in the process, thousands of innocent lives from 911 have been desecrated as a result of this abominable turn of events. But, lest we forget, even the aforementioned Catholic bishop council also clearly has some blame to shoulder for what's come down. They complain about "Islamophobia" to the point where they completely erase the experiences of the military soldiers who experienced firsthand what the Religion of Peace advocates and normalizes, and then we keep seeing these fiascos occur with no end in sight. This is absolutely awful.

Perhaps predictably, but definitely sadly, Zohran Mamdani was elected NYC mayor

The results are in for what possibly - and definitely sadly - was no surprise in the NYC mayoral election: they've gone the way of London and now have their first Muslim mayor:

Democrat Socialist Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral race, defeating former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa after a campaign defined by national attention, polling leads throughout the fall, and public debate over his economic, immigration, and foreign policy positions.

Mamdani — whose name appeared twice on the New York City ballot due to multiple party lines, a routine practice unique to the city’s ballot structure — entered Election Day with consistent polling advantages.

Independent surveys found Mamdani at 43 percent support going into the final weekend, with Cuomo trailing and Sliwa in third. Separate polling also showed that if the race had narrowed to a two-way matchup, Cuomo would have led head-to-head. In addition, the Manhattan Institute polling found Mamdani at 43 percent to Cuomo’s 28 percent in one survey, and leading when undecided voters were removed.

Hollywood involvement marked the final hours before voting, with performers and celebrities including Ilana Glazer, Mark Ruffalo, Naomi Klein, Jeff Hillier, George Takei, Mandy Patinkin, and Cynthia Nixon publicly participating in pro-Mamdani efforts. Michael Moore urged turnout nationwide. Other figures, including Amy Schumer and Marc Anthony, encouraged New Yorkers to back Cuomo.

National political figures engaged directly. President Donald Trump repeatedly urged voters to support Cuomo, warning that choosing Sliwa would benefit Mamdani. Trump also stated he would limit federal funding to New York if Mamdani won.

If anybody feels Sliwa contributed to enabling the awful Mamdani's ascent, the opinions are entirely valid, and I am hugely disappointed with Sliwa for his failure to clearly address the issue of Mamdani in one of Sliwa's campaign interviews. Of course, even Cuomo's seriously to blame for even running in the election to start with, considering his sordid record, which made Mamdani look better by comparison, even though, as noted before, he too made chilling statements on serious issues.

This election is also a defeat for NYC a quarter century after the tragedy of 911, and it's especially a defeat for victims of the horrifying crime. It's disgusting but no surprise only so many Hollywood "celebrities" would give Mamdani their backing, and make it hard to watch whatever shoddy movies they turn out. NYC is headed for the gutter, and only so many of the wrong sources enabled what's bound to be a fiasco in a short amount of time.

Update: also disturbing is that Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg was reelected, despite his catastrophous policies and failure to prosecute the worst of criminals in the city. No doubt, he and Mamdani will be working closely together.

Frank Miller's remains defeatist during a convention in Ireland

Down the Tubes gave some coverage of comics artist Miller's trip to a convention in Dublin, Ireland, where his recent documentary, American Genius, was screened, and his 2011 GN, Holy Terror, is also brought up, which he may have otherwise disowned in a very sad example of capitulation several years back. Most eyebrow raising here is that he actually raises the issue of censorship:

He also spoke about censorship, about how it’s like being trapped, and how “it’s worse than anything, censorship always achieves the opposite of what it intends to”. He went on to say that “through the 1950s, when they clamped down on every foreign entertainment we loved, the most subversive stuff in the world surfaced”. This part is interesting to me, as I am looking at Irish censorship of that time, that relates to comics.

Frank then reflected on entering the film business, and how he was working on Robocop II and he said “I convinced myself this thing would be this thing was going to win an Oscar” and how it was brilliant, and he would fix it, fix it in editing and how “I’d been convinced that something was brilliant, that wasn’t that good”.

Well first, I don't think he was ever a success at writing screenplays himself at the time, nor was he ever successful at crafting a film based on Will Eisner's Spirit, as he once did around the time Eisner passed on. So who's to say he's truly a "genius"? Not really.

But how funny if he's bringing up censorship problems, when he himself, in a way, succumbed to just that when he expressed regret over crafting Holy Terror about 7 years ago? And a lot of good it did him, since the Thought Bubble convention shunned him? All that does is put a damper on his whole argument, and suggest he's not very firm on his positions at all.

There's also the following claim that's bizarre:

Dave Gibbons spoke about Martha Washington, and then Frank spoke about Sin City, the black and white crime comic and how Dark Horse “didn’t flinch”, even though there were no superheroes, and which, at the time, was unheard of. We see a variety of authors, Al Williamson, and John Romita Jr., talk about comics they worked on with Frank, and there is discussion about original art.

Gee, hasn't the writer heard of say, Adam Strange, Nick Fury, and even Jon Sable, Freelance? Those weren't exactly characters known for being superheroes. Why, even the Warlord and Omega Men could be considered non-superheroes within such a universe. Even Marvel's New Universe line, short as it was, may have had characters who weren't superheroes either. We could even add the GI Joe and Transformers comics. Those aren't superheroes by any stretch either, no matter how close they came to having similar adventures. Now, here's more about the documentary:

The film pivots to the 21st century, and after the events of 9/11. One of the narrators explains how he “used nails to scrape the ink into the page because he had such visual visceral response to everything that happened during 9/11 and this was one of his first expressions of his anger and pain” we are told.

“I was still breathing in the stink,” says Frank Miller, visibly emotional, “of concrete, glass and human flesh” and how immense it was going through a “darkness, a sadness and horror”… “it turned into rage later”.

[...] The time shifts twice now, as two hours later, I learned that Frank was at home in New York during the 9/11 attack and tragedy, something I had suspected, but could not imagine. There were no shortage of connections at the time, including its impact his work on The Dark Knight Strikes Again, and, later, for example, his controversial contribution for the anthology, 9-11: Artists Respond. Art and anger, the expression of an artistic response, dealing with upset or trauma through art, it is a very interesting aspect.

I have no idea what the precise contribution was, but is the columnist complaining about something published in response to a horrifying incident where thousands of people were murdered by jihadists? It's bad enough he let's his leftism be clear later in the article. Now we have to hear something's wrong with contributing to what one would think was meant to be a tribute to the victims? Though as I'm aware, at least one special published around that time did contain left-wing messaging, and it's chilling now to wonder if Miller did anything similar. Because as revealed by the following:

Back to the film, which continues apace, and later the music later goes deep, a bass sound, and we learn that that the American conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart was a fan of Frank’s work, and tried, perhaps, to use him. Frank talks about how he met Breitbart, and discusses how people have an agenda, and how individuals had an agenda.

This element of the film was very specific. You can see how he is so unhappy with this time, and how he was near “something that gave us Donald Trump” and this was not something Frank was happy with. Frank wasn’t having any part of that (Breitbart News itself reported in 2017 how Miller described Trump as a “buffoon” during a Comic Con panel), and stayed very much away from them.

Obviously unhappy, Frank spoke of how the “propaganda” that Breitbart practised crossed a line into the territory on “no respect”.

Then Frank was asked a direct question: “Do you regret your comments on the other Occupy Wall Street people?” and he responded he was “certainly inconsiderate of the people who were occupying Wall Street, so sure,” and he reflects, “it was very aggressive”.

It's already old news he sadly backtracked, but what's really bizarre is that, at the time he first made the condemnations, he never provided even a single article link to back up his accusations. Let's take this report and also this one as examples. Why didn't he direct anybody to check those out? I never understood that at all. If anything, Miller's retraction sounds like a frantic effort to mend fences with fellow leftists when he didn't have to, and that's another huge problem - he didn't have the courage to part ways with them. I guess being famous was far too important to him than justice. And Breitbart's also problematic for him? For shame. If memory serves, the late Andrew Breitbart was favorable to Israel, and the news site named after him, in a manner of speaking, got a special start in Israel. Recalling Holy Terror, a subject of the American Genius documentary, is supposed to involve an Israeli mentor or something, I must say I find it difficult to understand why Miller has an issue with somebody in real life who was helpful to Israel in his time, unless maybe Miller wasn't so strong on his positions then at the time after all? He certainly doesn't seem to think much now of saying he supported patriotism back then either. And then, turning to the documentary's discussion of Holy Terror, it says:

The film then switches to footage of what I would consider right wing television championing his controversial project, Holy Terror, the film purposely showing its impact, in that regard, feeding the Islamophobic hatred that some people harbour, recognising an aspect of Frank’s past work that I had not expected to see.

“I get that it was complete freedom and a break,” Frank acknowledges, “and it shows… I was not at my best.”

The discussion moves to actors and film aspects, but then comes back to Frank, and he says how he was processing a large “amount of alcohol without even being aware of what I was doing.”

I realize Miller had problems with addiction, as he later told, but this seems like a cheap, all too convenient excuse to say he was almost literally wrong in his beliefs at the time. Wow, he sure isn't doing much to make me think he's worth upholding. Not that I ever thought much of his resume before though, recalling GNs like Sin City seem to comprise the bulk of his output, and hardly anything that could be described as optimistic. That's decidedly one of Miller's biggest problems, and why he's unfortunately overrated. Perhaps that's why, if there's any mistake Breitbart made, it was being too big a fan of Miller's. Also, lest we forget, Miller's art style's become very mediocre over the years, to the point where one can wonder why he continues his artist career, if he does. He even tears down on Will Eisner:

He then spoke about his “biggest feeling about addiction” which was a “sickening sense of missing time”. I thought this was powerful and he spoke about when he sat down with Will Eisner, over dinner, and Eisner did not want to talk about life, or what he had done wrong, but rather he had to go out, “travel the world, and get his heart broken”.

Then we see him talking about how he loves people who tell “heart-rending” stories, and how some people he admires, have made “terrible and tragic mistakes” and how he has to “learn from them, to to learn the true nature of life and what success is”.

One can only wonder if he believes Eisner made a mistake to research Islamic antisemitism, as he did when he was developing his last GN, The Plot. Miller certainly lets down Eisner's memory with this defeatist position, that's for sure, and what Miller says here about Eisner sounds rather forced, like he's looking for an opportunity to rip down on a guy I thought was a respectable mentor to him. And recalling the disgraced Neil Gaiman was a contributor to the documentary, does Miller come to terms with how Gaiman made mistakes? Who knows? It's shameful how he clings to friendship with otherwise unreliable figures, and recalling he wasn't credited to a letter written by Batman specialists in support of the Israeli family of an infant who was murdered by Hamas jihadists, one can only wonder - is Miller really that cowardly he couldn't add his name to the list, assuming the Wyman Institute asked him? That's not helpful at all. What's he "learning" then? The discussion of the documentary continues:

Frank Miller: American Genius is definitely not a piece of propaganda, as it goes to the weaknesses and failings that have occurred to Frank, which I had not anticipated, issues which were discussed included his alcoholism and its effect on him, his anger and the graphic novel Holy Terror, and his take on the Occupy Wall Street Movement. I wasn’t aware that during that darker phase of his life, that Breitbart and Steve Bannon, had become somewhat enthralled and desired to be aligned with Frank.

The film was not afraid of addressing parts of Frank’s life that one would be ashamed of, and I felt that this film was prepared to probe and ask hard questions. It was reflecting on what had happened, and Frank came across as quite remorseful about what had occurred, and repentant.

It is not for me to decide what others will make of the film, or whether they can find any form of reconciliation for the harsh utterances he made and the work that was Holy Terror. I am not and was not impacted in the way others were, who will have felt outrage with validity; that they were impacted, hurt or targeted. My position and privilege protect me, and it is easy for me to consider that to fail is to be human. So it it is to individuals to consider and decide for themselves their view, if they even want to.

Gee, the writer sure is intent on validating the defeatist side of the whole affair. Has he even ever met 9-11 Families? In the near quarter century since the tragedy, people like him never seem to bring up the victims and their families, as if they don't matter. At worst, the defeatists act like they don't even exist. It's a similar situation with Israel post-October 7, 2023. Also note he complained earlier about "islamophobia", and that's pretty telling as well. And on that note, the columnist then proceeds to sugarcoat pro-Hamas movements in Ireland:

This is no scarf to give warmth or comfort. It is an international quilt of resistance, which has been crocheted in rural Ireland by a group of women and their international allies for Palestinian children killed in Gaza. This is “Craftivism” and the quilt is “a gesture of remembrance, resistance, and rage at the appalling loss of life in Palestine.”

Wow, so much feeling for "palestinians", but none for Israeli victims of Islamofascism, huh? Or even the Irish victims of the same? That's the impression one can get from this otherwise one-sided disgust and sorry excuse for a pop culture column, which even proceeds to sugarcoat anti-Israel cartoonist Joe Sacco:

I had picked up Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco earlier in the day, at the Oxfam charity table at Dublin Comic Con. Charity tables at conventions turn up the most unusual things, and I think they add a lovely aspect, so I rummage under the table, and find this amazing book, and I am asked whether it was a good book, as I commented that I had it, even though I was considering it, you can always gift such a book, I reckon, and I respond, “one of the best” I says, “Sacco is brilliant and one might find a path to understanding what is happening now, and an appreciation of the history for sure.

Oh yeah, Sacco's a pure god, but Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster are nothing, is that it? Such a disgrace. And no objections to how "palestinians" are indoctrinating their children with the Religion of Peace? There's another sad example of failure right there. The writer then says:

I am back in the room with Frank and many fans, and I have three questions in mind, I have mentioned to comic reading pals over the years, that I have these questions, for some time, that I wanted to ask them of him, long before I knew he would be in Ireland. The third, which sadly I do not get to ask, would be tricky, although possibly the easiest in this setting, as I want to ask Frank “If he hates the Irish”, given his portrayal of David the bomb maker in Holy Terror and The Mercenaries in Sin City as Irish; and I am not altogether sure that the Irish aspect was a positive element in Daredevil, and if Matt Murdoch is crippled by his Irish Catholicism – but I did not get to ask this question. Probably for the best.

My second question was about 9/11 and as you know, I asked this on Monday.

After all the defeatism, one could wonder if Miller really cares about the better interests of the Irish at all, though an even better query is whether the columnist does, after all Ireland's gone through, and even Britain, at the hands of the Religion of Peace, which the Gazans he speaks of adhere to, and many of them even kept Mein Kamph in their houses. What, is that okay if they follow those kind of horrific belief systems? That Islamic indoctrination practically led to October 7, 2023. It even led to the assault on Salman Rushdie. On which note, is Miller aware of verses in the koran like 47:4? There's valid issues that can be made about the "Religion of Peace", and he throws them all away just to remain in the "good graces" of the leftists with whom he produced the documentary.

In the end, I'm very disappointed with Miller, who appears to have made use of the American Genius documentary as a means of groveling for all the wrong reasons. Mike Baron and Chuck Dixon, by contrast, will likely never get a documentary about their careers by contrast. And as for the Down The Tubes news site, it's more like down the drain, seeing how far-left their approach really is, so what business do they have speaking for the medium anyway? Miller has at least a few allusions to WW2 in his writings, and his standings today end up making them look like a joke. Does he also think communism isn't worth protesting? From what I know, Miller was unhappy in the 90s when Marvel put Elektra to more use again, but considering how poor his own viewpoints have become, that's why I don't think Miller has any business complaining that Marvel decided to bring the kunoichi he created in 1981 back into the spotlight again. All that matters is how artistically successful that was, and post-2000, it definitely wasn't much. But then, it's not like Miller's had much to do with Marvel and Daredevil for years now, so maybe he at least understands it's hardly worth it to be so petty. He has recently returned to work with them on a joint project with DC, for a Batman/Wolverine crossover. but again, his artwork has become so forced and mediocre, what's the use beyond the artist's name recognition?

And that's got to be the problem with how that comic's being sold too - just upon that Miller's the illustrator. But that alone doesn't guarantee artistic success, even story-wise. All that aside, my problem with Miller, again, is that he's the kind of creator who's far too obsessed with all that's dark, yet when a serious issue like Islamic terrorism comes about, he turns defeatist, as is already old news. When it comes to brighter storytelling, there's very little of that in Miller's resume, as again, he's just so obsessed with making use of Batman for reasons increasingly pointless. No doubt, a similar argument could be made involving Wolverine. And Miller even has the gall to throw Eisner under the bus. I just don't know what Miller's still working in entertainment for, or why we have to consider Sin City fantastic art any more than anything else. Miller's definitely past his prime, and the defeatist path he's taken of recent only feeds into the narrative the far-left wants to hear. And all this just explains why, beyond Daredevil, there's little else he's ever drawn and written that I've ever cared for.

IS BAIN EVIL?

The Democratic Party is demonizing Bain Capital.

Certain facts about Bain Capital bear consideration (hat tip to Z!), and the GOP needs to bring out these facts.

Excerpt from the conclusion of "Look Who Parks Their Cash at Bain," an article dated August 31, 2012:

Is Bain really a gang of corporate buccaneers who plunder their ill-gotten gains by outsourcing, euthanizing feeble portfolio companies and giving cancer to the spouses of those whom they fired? If so, union bosses, government retirees, liberal foundations and elite universities thrive on the wages of Bain’s economic Darwinism.

If, however, these institutions relish the yields that Bain Capital generates by supporting start-ups and rescuing distressed companies, 80 percent of which have prospered, then this money is honest — and Team Obama isn’t.

Among the groups which have benefited from Bain Capital:

* Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund ($2.2 million)
* Indiana Public Retirement System ($39.3 million)
* Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System ($177.1 million)
* The Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension System ($19.5 million)
* Maryland State Retirement and Pension System ($117.5 million)
* Public Employees’ Retirement System of Nevada ($20.3 million)
* State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio ($767.3 million)
* Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System ($231.5 million)
* Employees’ Retirement System of Rhode Island ($25 million)
* San Diego County Employees Retirement Association ($23.5 million)
* Teacher Retirement System of Texas ($122.5 million)
* Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System ($15 million)

Read the entire article HERE.

Obama’s Handling of Economy Spurs TV Show

Unemployment numbers continue to soar as both small business owners and corporate titans alike find themselves in a life-and-death struggle to survive under the radical anti-capitalism administration of President Barack Obama. If we continue down this path, I suspect the next hit television show on the Fox Network might be...

Click here to see the name of that Obama-inspired show.