For what it's worth, my son and daughter-in-law knew Mamdani at Bowdoin College, where he was two years ahead of them. They now live in Queens and campaigned for him with joyful and unrelenting energy and hope. They are over the moon about his victory, while also sharing your concern (that I share too) that he will now be murdered, sigh. If he lives, the monsters will do everything they can to obstruct his vision and destroy him personally, even before November. If he survives and wins and becomes mayor, he will certainly not be perfect. He will make mistakes. But the fact that he ran on a campaign of compassion and justice and decency and love has at least briefly lifted the hearts of millions, including me, bless him. May he and his loved ones all be safe. And may his victory in the primary be a reminder that when you reach out to people and lift them up with your sincerity and goodness, they will reach back and lift you up, too.
I'm glad that people you know say he's a genuine good guy. I am worried. The campaign against him has been so rabid and defamatory, but I'm also chilled by how quickly people forgot the Minnesota representative who was murdered less than two weeks ago with her husband. It feels like we are living in an era growing closer to the 1960s time of assassinations becoming routine and that there will be great incentive to kill him and not enough protection afforded to him.
I am very worried about his safety, too, not least because I think the establishment Dems (not to mention the despicable Eric Adams) are as likely to try and arrange his demise as anyone in the GOP, sigh. And then there's the not-so-great reputation of the NYPD, sigh. Well, let us hope and pray that he and his loved ones remain safe. And let us all do what we can to protect them by tirelessly countering--in every way we are able, wherever we are--the lies and denigrations that are circling around him everywhere and increasing his peril.
Hakeem Jeffries today confirmed all of this. It is a controlled "opposition."
No government reps present at the funeral of the lawmakers in Minnesota. It is chilling to see a US version of what fascist Italy was like in the 20th century.
Without the Allies arriving (my own family remembers that well) the Italian Resistance (that took 20 YEARS to become kinetic) could not have prevailed. And back then there were no tools for maximum tech surveillance.
There are no Allies coming to assist the American people this time.
I sometimes imagine that after World War III has ended, the United States is occupied by Allied nations (we are an Axis power in this scenario) who portion the country up and rule us, ostensibly until we get our shit together. I would like to be occupied by Mexico, for the irony, and because I dream of it being easier to get guajillo and ancho chiles here.
Didn't know about the Maine connection (ancestors and my son went to Bowdoin). I was born and grew up in NYC and it's like an old lover to me, the feelings are still there but we're not getting back together. I wish this incredible city well. It has millions of good and kind folk as well as the bad apples. Hooray for Mamdani, hooray for hope.
And Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow attended. Thankfully, Bowdoin now admits women. It was among the first private colleges to admit non-white students, to its credit, and has more recently honored Native Americans in Maine.
One of the ways that I deal with the dread Sarah always describes so well is to live in the moment more. I realize that may sound like I’m ignoring reality somehow, but the reality they want us to live in is a state of mindless dread about the future, so simply living in the now occasionally feels like wresting back some control. Since I’m mortal.
And I too am over the moon that Zohran won!!!!!!!, because of all the people and organizations that made it possible. It means something unto itself - regardless of what comes next, it means something right now.
Hi Sarah, I echo Roy's comment. Your writing is truly outstanding and helps to sustain hope that some day there will be more appreciation for such in our country which seems intent upon ever diminishing attention spans, greed, and primal nativism
Yes, a fiery spark, Sarah! I have an elderly friend who had long covid for a year and a half, but on Primary night, she was out on the same corner as me, doing poll visibility for Zohran & chanting “Don’t rank Cuomo!” She was ebullient even before the results were in.
Lotta sweaty hugs in Brooklyn ‘specially when Cuomo conceded.
An intergenerational & all walks of life effort! People power is a stronger currency than creeps’ radioactive $$$, when we are able to organize & mobilize at the most needed moments which is most of the time now.
If only we could now make a human shield to protect Zohran and Brad (who we hope will primary Levi’s-Heir & genocide supporting Congress member Dan Goldman who bought his way into our land.)
More intelligent, insightful writing from one of my favorite authors. I received over 300 hearts from readers of my diagnoses for Our Mad King (wannabe) Donald the 1st: Borderline Personality Disorder, with narcissistic, sociopathic, sadistic, anti-social, and other traits; Bipolar disorder, type II; ADHD; and Dementia of the Alzheimer's type. I'm a retired psychiatrist and no longer bound by the Goldwater Rule of the APA, and being scientific about our critique of the Mad King may help. I am an armchair climate nerd now and the canary in the coal mine is the 8 billion tons of melting Greenland ice PER HOUR, each pound of which has absorbed 144 BTUs of human generated heat energy. Like the title of Jeff Goodell's "The Heat Will Kill You First", I only take staycations and drive 3,000 mi/yr. We are committing global suicide, in more ways than one. Have a blessed day and please do keep sharing your brilliant writing with the rest of us. You/we are not alone!
Thanks for the stats. I got religion in this in a whole new way five years ago- my principle transport here in the upper Midwest is my 55-year-old Raleigh 3-speed, I hang my wash on the line, and generally strive to a life more in line with the time before the Powell Memo supplanted the Golden Rule, the Sermon on the Mount, and even the old Boy Scout Code.
Agreed, if AIPAC doesn’t back his opponent to outspend and do election fuckshit, he will be assassinated, like Bobby.
I wish I had recorded more of my mother’s lived experiences. I never understood WWII and the Civil Rights era, until I saw the ugliness of this last decade.
Sigh, keep the faith, folks. Do the things. And stay hydrated.
Yes, keep the faith. The alternative is too bleak. Great writing, as usual, Sarah! Thank you for continuing to float in your canoe on the river, giving all of us something wonderful to read. Blessings!
This was indeed a moment of hope. I've visited NYC regularly since I was a teenager - over 40 years. So much love for that city. But the featureless billionaire skyscraper condos, monuments only to individual ego and designed to hold the occupants at far remove from the daily life of the city, are a visual, cultural, and societal blight - each one like a scar on the city's soul. These buildings contribute so little, and yet take away so much. And they're only one symbol of how the city has been taken over by the people you describe. The election was a loud strike against all of that. A remarkable flicker of hope. I'm rooting hard for him.
Yes. I lived in NYC from 2000-2003, and went to college near there from 1996-2000, and when I go back now I don't recognize anything. It's militarized police, banks, and bland skyscrapers. There is no personality. I used to think it was a bad place to live (because of the expense) but a fun place to visit, but then it stopped being even that. Mamdani reminds of the NYC I used to like.
There are still pockets of the old New York, Sarah...Greenwich Village where I grew up (and could never afford to live there now) and some neighborhoods in the boroughs...my daughter lived briefly in Sunnyside, Queens. There's still a sense of "the commons" in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, on the Hudson River path on Manhattan, in the international mix of people enjoying Central Park...Lenape Native homeland, then farmland, now a priceless park that developers can't get their grubby hands on, but families can share it. People can talk people they don't know because a sense of a safe place builds trust...and community.
I have started working with a local food charity—essentially we provide bags for people to fill, and then we pick them up. Easy, right? I figure as SNAP benefits go away people will be in even greater need. Some women I know are starting a group on the five Buddhist tenets of aging, and I’ve raised my hand enthusiastically as a member. I am bowling on Sunday mornings. I not only love bowling alleys but also enjoy watching other people bowl. Last week we watched a guy whose delivery was so smooth as to be silent, incredible. We stopped and talked to him as we left. He said he had developed this habit of silence by 13 or 14 and that he’s the singles champion for our county, among other things like when his dad started taking him bowling. It was a nice, human moment, a reminder of a time when we didn’t know each other’s politics and just tried to be friendly. “You girls(!) enjoy your day,” he called after us.
I hope Mamdani wins the general and that the Big Machine that tried to force Cuomo back into office can’t catch him.
I hope goodness is contagious. I hope Sarah never stops writing,
Dershowitz is an obituary I look forward to. No doubt in my mind he has something to do with Virginia Giuffre's death. She stood 10 toes down as a witness to being trafficked to him. I know she recanted at some point, but I always believed her. I worried about her safety. It seems the worry was warranted. After all that she went through, suicide is suspicious.
I am humbled by the bravery of people like Sarah, Virginia, & Mamdani who still speak truth to power with fire in the face of unknown consequences. All I got is day to day navigation and survival. LOL! Bravo and thank you for all you do Sarah (& those like you).
Virginia Giuffre's death broke my heart. I wrote about her case in HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT back in 2019 when she was going under the name Virginia Roberts, and Epstein hadn't yet been arrested or "committed suicide". His "suicide" happened while I was in the final stage of copy edits and I had to quickly rewrite that chapter to make it up to date. That means there is one paragraph of HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT that does not hold up -- the one where I wrote of my hope that *finally* Virginia and others would find justice. In the summer of 2019, it seemed like the Epstein case would break open and the truth would help set America free. Instead, the cases were dropped, elite criminal impunity became more deeply entrenched, and threats to the victims continued. Dershowitz has been one of the most consistently threatening figures since the 1980s and I am curious what will come to light when he passes on.
It can’t come soon enough. He is trash. I started hating him after the OJ trial. He would always give that stupid death stare into the camera when he would deny having anything to do with Virginia with those nasty wooden teeth. I think it’s because she could not be intimidated is what got his goat.
I do remember reading about this in HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT. I feel terrible for her that she felt she brought her little sister into that cesspool of a trafficking ring (unknowingly, of course).
I do know that all the young girls they targeted they considered to be throw-aways, or come from troubled homes. Not a big surprise, of course - classic abuser behavior.
If not for Virginia, I’m not sure if the rest of them would have come forward. She was the anchor and I believe she is what gave them the strength to come forward and she kept after it for so long. I cannot imagine. It’s much like you do, scream into a void. I only wish I would have discovered you way back in 2015. I really do believe I would have lived with my eyes wider shut. 🤭 or when the student is ready…. You are deeply appreciated.
Just blah. It’s so depressing that they can keep kicking the can down the road up until their death so they won’t have to deal with the consequences of their actions while they’re alive and be allowed to live their repulsive lives….or to have the means and the power to keep the balls in the air so none of them land while they’re still alive. It’s reprehensible.
But yes, other than sparing the planet of a vile soul, I too look forward to what comes out after he’s gone, unless he’s got someone to control and bury that too with him when that time comes.
I do have the hard copy of your THE LAST AMERICAN ROADTRIP book. I have not read it yet and I thought it would come signed by you, but it looks like I will have to track you down on one of your book tours for your to sign it. 😋🫶🏽 I’ll keep an eye out.
So Cuomo is now to run as an Independent. To use your metaphor, let’s turn up the heat on Cuomo and not let vendetta, mean spiritedness, and sexual pest(ilence) win again.
Thanks! I'm not caught up on the news cuz I was writing this all day, but it is important to a lot of bad people to have Cuomo in there, and I'm worried what they'll do to get it. If they can't get Cuomo, they will settle for someone from that same circle.
The DNC needs to continue to be confronted by a simple question - “what else is true?” - reflect on the fable of the five blind men and the elephant… and be humbled …
Another powerful lyrical reflection on our present moment: "I would complain to my representative, but I don’t have representation." After the grotesque silence under Biden, CA reps had clarified their allegiance to career and money. All of them cowards. Even so, Mamdani's rise has inspired us here in Los Angeles where the high cost of living, the brutality of the PD and ICE are commonplace, we have a shot at something similar. Our progressive movement must be horizontal. Lander's embrace of Mamdani was a sight to behold. Looking forward to more alliances of a similar nature. The transnational gangsters should have known better than to invest in a city where Trump is anathema. Let them scatter to the wind.
Yes -- I like seeing the nationwide alliances and the support people from faraway states show each other. One of the oligarch goals is to partition the country in order to make it easier to strip down and sell for parts. The facile "blue" and "red" rhetoric that both parties recite is meant to get us to fight each other instead of fighting a criminal elite and a broken system. They still recite the script, but it's failing as people read between the lines.
Claire, I gave my daughter an orange Zohran bandana with little drawings of bodegas (so many talented designers on his campaign- doing it all for free in true DSA style.) She wore it when we hiked in the Redwoods and now post victory, she wears it around L.A. :)
My favorite quote: “I would complain to my representative, but I don’t have representation.” I live in Pennsylvania, and both my senators are enthusiastic supporters of genocide. My congressman falls somewhere in between.
It’s such a common crisis: “My representative represents a foreign country and is beholden to its donors.” People can like or dislike Cori Bush all they want, but she represented St Louis, she represented the United States. It’s absolutely deranged that we carry on like this.
I have yet to figure out why Fetterman is one of the most outspoken proponents of genocide. It can’t be just because AIPAC bought him; he’s a multimillionaire trust fund baby. But I’ve always known that he’s a fraud. Conor Lamb is currently doing the job of Pennsylvania senator. Fetterman conned people into thinking that he was the more progressive, and he won in a landslide.
Same. My very first thought was ICE deportation orchestrated by Trump so Cuomo could reenter the race. If not just be handed the election. His security should be insane right now.
I have felt something stir since Zohran’s win. But here in Idaho, I don’t know if I’m looking at cooling water or a mirage. Most interesting is the extreme opposition I’ve heard/read on everything from his name to his ideas. In this F’d up scene we are seeing unfold everywhere, I would have to think that’s a good thing.
The opposition is WILD. I knew it would be bad, because he's Muslim and he defeated Cuomo, but I did not think it would be this unhinged. I thought it would stay at the level of anti-AOC rhetoric (which granted is quite bad). But my jaw dropped at some of the statements -- that he is treated as a serious violent threat when he's done absolutely *nothing* to threaten anyone. You'd think there would be some social penalty for being THIS much of an open bigot, but there is not in NYC high society.
I’m astounded as well. It gobsmacks me everytime I see this happen. People try to be decent, help their neighbor, think about someone other than themselves and they are viewed as a threat to the institutional order. The cancer keeps growing.
For what it's worth, my son and daughter-in-law knew Mamdani at Bowdoin College, where he was two years ahead of them. They now live in Queens and campaigned for him with joyful and unrelenting energy and hope. They are over the moon about his victory, while also sharing your concern (that I share too) that he will now be murdered, sigh. If he lives, the monsters will do everything they can to obstruct his vision and destroy him personally, even before November. If he survives and wins and becomes mayor, he will certainly not be perfect. He will make mistakes. But the fact that he ran on a campaign of compassion and justice and decency and love has at least briefly lifted the hearts of millions, including me, bless him. May he and his loved ones all be safe. And may his victory in the primary be a reminder that when you reach out to people and lift them up with your sincerity and goodness, they will reach back and lift you up, too.
I'm glad that people you know say he's a genuine good guy. I am worried. The campaign against him has been so rabid and defamatory, but I'm also chilled by how quickly people forgot the Minnesota representative who was murdered less than two weeks ago with her husband. It feels like we are living in an era growing closer to the 1960s time of assassinations becoming routine and that there will be great incentive to kill him and not enough protection afforded to him.
I am very worried about his safety, too, not least because I think the establishment Dems (not to mention the despicable Eric Adams) are as likely to try and arrange his demise as anyone in the GOP, sigh. And then there's the not-so-great reputation of the NYPD, sigh. Well, let us hope and pray that he and his loved ones remain safe. And let us all do what we can to protect them by tirelessly countering--in every way we are able, wherever we are--the lies and denigrations that are circling around him everywhere and increasing his peril.
Hakeem Jeffries today confirmed all of this. It is a controlled "opposition."
No government reps present at the funeral of the lawmakers in Minnesota. It is chilling to see a US version of what fascist Italy was like in the 20th century.
Without the Allies arriving (my own family remembers that well) the Italian Resistance (that took 20 YEARS to become kinetic) could not have prevailed. And back then there were no tools for maximum tech surveillance.
There are no Allies coming to assist the American people this time.
I sometimes imagine that after World War III has ended, the United States is occupied by Allied nations (we are an Axis power in this scenario) who portion the country up and rule us, ostensibly until we get our shit together. I would like to be occupied by Mexico, for the irony, and because I dream of it being easier to get guajillo and ancho chiles here.
Didn't know about the Maine connection (ancestors and my son went to Bowdoin). I was born and grew up in NYC and it's like an old lover to me, the feelings are still there but we're not getting back together. I wish this incredible city well. It has millions of good and kind folk as well as the bad apples. Hooray for Mamdani, hooray for hope.
The college that Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain taught.
And Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow attended. Thankfully, Bowdoin now admits women. It was among the first private colleges to admit non-white students, to its credit, and has more recently honored Native Americans in Maine.
One of the ways that I deal with the dread Sarah always describes so well is to live in the moment more. I realize that may sound like I’m ignoring reality somehow, but the reality they want us to live in is a state of mindless dread about the future, so simply living in the now occasionally feels like wresting back some control. Since I’m mortal.
And I too am over the moon that Zohran won!!!!!!!, because of all the people and organizations that made it possible. It means something unto itself - regardless of what comes next, it means something right now.
Bleak as life is at this time - your ability to put it into words is a thing of astonishing beauty
Thank you
Hi Sarah, I echo Roy's comment. Your writing is truly outstanding and helps to sustain hope that some day there will be more appreciation for such in our country which seems intent upon ever diminishing attention spans, greed, and primal nativism
Yeah, like kerosene
Yes, a fiery spark, Sarah! I have an elderly friend who had long covid for a year and a half, but on Primary night, she was out on the same corner as me, doing poll visibility for Zohran & chanting “Don’t rank Cuomo!” She was ebullient even before the results were in.
Lotta sweaty hugs in Brooklyn ‘specially when Cuomo conceded.
An intergenerational & all walks of life effort! People power is a stronger currency than creeps’ radioactive $$$, when we are able to organize & mobilize at the most needed moments which is most of the time now.
If only we could now make a human shield to protect Zohran and Brad (who we hope will primary Levi’s-Heir & genocide supporting Congress member Dan Goldman who bought his way into our land.)
More intelligent, insightful writing from one of my favorite authors. I received over 300 hearts from readers of my diagnoses for Our Mad King (wannabe) Donald the 1st: Borderline Personality Disorder, with narcissistic, sociopathic, sadistic, anti-social, and other traits; Bipolar disorder, type II; ADHD; and Dementia of the Alzheimer's type. I'm a retired psychiatrist and no longer bound by the Goldwater Rule of the APA, and being scientific about our critique of the Mad King may help. I am an armchair climate nerd now and the canary in the coal mine is the 8 billion tons of melting Greenland ice PER HOUR, each pound of which has absorbed 144 BTUs of human generated heat energy. Like the title of Jeff Goodell's "The Heat Will Kill You First", I only take staycations and drive 3,000 mi/yr. We are committing global suicide, in more ways than one. Have a blessed day and please do keep sharing your brilliant writing with the rest of us. You/we are not alone!
Thanks for the stats. I got religion in this in a whole new way five years ago- my principle transport here in the upper Midwest is my 55-year-old Raleigh 3-speed, I hang my wash on the line, and generally strive to a life more in line with the time before the Powell Memo supplanted the Golden Rule, the Sermon on the Mount, and even the old Boy Scout Code.
You always turn the conversation to yourself, don’t you Greely? What’s your diagnosis for that?
Like my ole Ma used to say: if you can't say something nice about someone, just don't say anything. Have a blessed day.
Agreed, if AIPAC doesn’t back his opponent to outspend and do election fuckshit, he will be assassinated, like Bobby.
I wish I had recorded more of my mother’s lived experiences. I never understood WWII and the Civil Rights era, until I saw the ugliness of this last decade.
Sigh, keep the faith, folks. Do the things. And stay hydrated.
Yes, keep the faith. The alternative is too bleak. Great writing, as usual, Sarah! Thank you for continuing to float in your canoe on the river, giving all of us something wonderful to read. Blessings!
This was indeed a moment of hope. I've visited NYC regularly since I was a teenager - over 40 years. So much love for that city. But the featureless billionaire skyscraper condos, monuments only to individual ego and designed to hold the occupants at far remove from the daily life of the city, are a visual, cultural, and societal blight - each one like a scar on the city's soul. These buildings contribute so little, and yet take away so much. And they're only one symbol of how the city has been taken over by the people you describe. The election was a loud strike against all of that. A remarkable flicker of hope. I'm rooting hard for him.
Yes. I lived in NYC from 2000-2003, and went to college near there from 1996-2000, and when I go back now I don't recognize anything. It's militarized police, banks, and bland skyscrapers. There is no personality. I used to think it was a bad place to live (because of the expense) but a fun place to visit, but then it stopped being even that. Mamdani reminds of the NYC I used to like.
There are still pockets of the old New York, Sarah...Greenwich Village where I grew up (and could never afford to live there now) and some neighborhoods in the boroughs...my daughter lived briefly in Sunnyside, Queens. There's still a sense of "the commons" in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, on the Hudson River path on Manhattan, in the international mix of people enjoying Central Park...Lenape Native homeland, then farmland, now a priceless park that developers can't get their grubby hands on, but families can share it. People can talk people they don't know because a sense of a safe place builds trust...and community.
I have started working with a local food charity—essentially we provide bags for people to fill, and then we pick them up. Easy, right? I figure as SNAP benefits go away people will be in even greater need. Some women I know are starting a group on the five Buddhist tenets of aging, and I’ve raised my hand enthusiastically as a member. I am bowling on Sunday mornings. I not only love bowling alleys but also enjoy watching other people bowl. Last week we watched a guy whose delivery was so smooth as to be silent, incredible. We stopped and talked to him as we left. He said he had developed this habit of silence by 13 or 14 and that he’s the singles champion for our county, among other things like when his dad started taking him bowling. It was a nice, human moment, a reminder of a time when we didn’t know each other’s politics and just tried to be friendly. “You girls(!) enjoy your day,” he called after us.
I hope Mamdani wins the general and that the Big Machine that tried to force Cuomo back into office can’t catch him.
I hope goodness is contagious. I hope Sarah never stops writing,
Thank you! And I enjoyed reading about your life!
5 Buddhist tenets of aging? Sounds interesting. I want to know more.
https://www.lionsroar.com/buddhism/five-precepts/
Same. I’ll keep the community posted.
You are a fresh and welcome breeze Sarah, with a spark of your own-and I laughed too "sex pest". I did not know Landers was from MO! Thank you.
Thanks for reading!
Dershowitz is an obituary I look forward to. No doubt in my mind he has something to do with Virginia Giuffre's death. She stood 10 toes down as a witness to being trafficked to him. I know she recanted at some point, but I always believed her. I worried about her safety. It seems the worry was warranted. After all that she went through, suicide is suspicious.
I am humbled by the bravery of people like Sarah, Virginia, & Mamdani who still speak truth to power with fire in the face of unknown consequences. All I got is day to day navigation and survival. LOL! Bravo and thank you for all you do Sarah (& those like you).
Virginia Giuffre's death broke my heart. I wrote about her case in HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT back in 2019 when she was going under the name Virginia Roberts, and Epstein hadn't yet been arrested or "committed suicide". His "suicide" happened while I was in the final stage of copy edits and I had to quickly rewrite that chapter to make it up to date. That means there is one paragraph of HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT that does not hold up -- the one where I wrote of my hope that *finally* Virginia and others would find justice. In the summer of 2019, it seemed like the Epstein case would break open and the truth would help set America free. Instead, the cases were dropped, elite criminal impunity became more deeply entrenched, and threats to the victims continued. Dershowitz has been one of the most consistently threatening figures since the 1980s and I am curious what will come to light when he passes on.
It can’t come soon enough. He is trash. I started hating him after the OJ trial. He would always give that stupid death stare into the camera when he would deny having anything to do with Virginia with those nasty wooden teeth. I think it’s because she could not be intimidated is what got his goat.
I do remember reading about this in HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT. I feel terrible for her that she felt she brought her little sister into that cesspool of a trafficking ring (unknowingly, of course).
I do know that all the young girls they targeted they considered to be throw-aways, or come from troubled homes. Not a big surprise, of course - classic abuser behavior.
If not for Virginia, I’m not sure if the rest of them would have come forward. She was the anchor and I believe she is what gave them the strength to come forward and she kept after it for so long. I cannot imagine. It’s much like you do, scream into a void. I only wish I would have discovered you way back in 2015. I really do believe I would have lived with my eyes wider shut. 🤭 or when the student is ready…. You are deeply appreciated.
Just blah. It’s so depressing that they can keep kicking the can down the road up until their death so they won’t have to deal with the consequences of their actions while they’re alive and be allowed to live their repulsive lives….or to have the means and the power to keep the balls in the air so none of them land while they’re still alive. It’s reprehensible.
But yes, other than sparing the planet of a vile soul, I too look forward to what comes out after he’s gone, unless he’s got someone to control and bury that too with him when that time comes.
I do have the hard copy of your THE LAST AMERICAN ROADTRIP book. I have not read it yet and I thought it would come signed by you, but it looks like I will have to track you down on one of your book tours for your to sign it. 😋🫶🏽 I’ll keep an eye out.
So Cuomo is now to run as an Independent. To use your metaphor, let’s turn up the heat on Cuomo and not let vendetta, mean spiritedness, and sexual pest(ilence) win again.
Loved this post, BTW.
Thanks! I'm not caught up on the news cuz I was writing this all day, but it is important to a lot of bad people to have Cuomo in there, and I'm worried what they'll do to get it. If they can't get Cuomo, they will settle for someone from that same circle.
The DNC needs to continue to be confronted by a simple question - “what else is true?” - reflect on the fable of the five blind men and the elephant… and be humbled …
Another powerful lyrical reflection on our present moment: "I would complain to my representative, but I don’t have representation." After the grotesque silence under Biden, CA reps had clarified their allegiance to career and money. All of them cowards. Even so, Mamdani's rise has inspired us here in Los Angeles where the high cost of living, the brutality of the PD and ICE are commonplace, we have a shot at something similar. Our progressive movement must be horizontal. Lander's embrace of Mamdani was a sight to behold. Looking forward to more alliances of a similar nature. The transnational gangsters should have known better than to invest in a city where Trump is anathema. Let them scatter to the wind.
Yes -- I like seeing the nationwide alliances and the support people from faraway states show each other. One of the oligarch goals is to partition the country in order to make it easier to strip down and sell for parts. The facile "blue" and "red" rhetoric that both parties recite is meant to get us to fight each other instead of fighting a criminal elite and a broken system. They still recite the script, but it's failing as people read between the lines.
Claire, I gave my daughter an orange Zohran bandana with little drawings of bodegas (so many talented designers on his campaign- doing it all for free in true DSA style.) She wore it when we hiked in the Redwoods and now post victory, she wears it around L.A. :)
Gorgeous!! Love this gen.
My favorite quote: “I would complain to my representative, but I don’t have representation.” I live in Pennsylvania, and both my senators are enthusiastic supporters of genocide. My congressman falls somewhere in between.
It’s such a common crisis: “My representative represents a foreign country and is beholden to its donors.” People can like or dislike Cori Bush all they want, but she represented St Louis, she represented the United States. It’s absolutely deranged that we carry on like this.
I have yet to figure out why Fetterman is one of the most outspoken proponents of genocide. It can’t be just because AIPAC bought him; he’s a multimillionaire trust fund baby. But I’ve always known that he’s a fraud. Conor Lamb is currently doing the job of Pennsylvania senator. Fetterman conned people into thinking that he was the more progressive, and he won in a landslide.
I have the same problem in Ohio, now that that Colombian car thief Moreno beat Sherrod Brown.
Every time there is hope, I fear the worst. Zohran is like a gentle breeze on an oppressively hot season. We know how this ends. It gets hotter.
Yet we must try, right?
I said immediately upon hearing of his victory that I sure hope he's got his security.
Same. My very first thought was ICE deportation orchestrated by Trump so Cuomo could reenter the race. If not just be handed the election. His security should be insane right now.
I have felt something stir since Zohran’s win. But here in Idaho, I don’t know if I’m looking at cooling water or a mirage. Most interesting is the extreme opposition I’ve heard/read on everything from his name to his ideas. In this F’d up scene we are seeing unfold everywhere, I would have to think that’s a good thing.
The opposition is WILD. I knew it would be bad, because he's Muslim and he defeated Cuomo, but I did not think it would be this unhinged. I thought it would stay at the level of anti-AOC rhetoric (which granted is quite bad). But my jaw dropped at some of the statements -- that he is treated as a serious violent threat when he's done absolutely *nothing* to threaten anyone. You'd think there would be some social penalty for being THIS much of an open bigot, but there is not in NYC high society.
I’m astounded as well. It gobsmacks me everytime I see this happen. People try to be decent, help their neighbor, think about someone other than themselves and they are viewed as a threat to the institutional order. The cancer keeps growing.
“…and those society people in New York City, who live with their heads up their asses anyway…"