Microblog Memes

That is exactly it.

I have much fun remindng people today that the time when "America was Great" aka the 1950's also saw the median tax rate on the ultra-wealthy at over 90%. It's a rough third of that now since most are earning wealth through non-taxable investment vehicles and not taxable income-based earnings.

Lotsa paper tigers out there..

It’s wild how much more billionaires are spending to defeat Zohran than what his tax proposal would cost them.

It's not about beating Zohran once for a single term. It's about beating the idea of a socialist mayor out of the voting public for another generation. Gotta get back to the idea that DeBlaiso was too radical and Eric Adams is what New Yorkers should expect.

And a win for Zohran isn't just a single seat in a single city. There's a municipal offices at play, including the NYPD chief. There's half a dozen House Reps at play (chief among them Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries's seat). There's state House and Senate seats. There's the very real possibility of an insurgent campaign to unseat Kathy Hochul or threaten the increasingly unpopular Senator Gilibrand.

He's a crack in the dam. And at the size and scale of NYC, its a fucking big one.

You think this is big?

Wait till you see what they put behind Newsom/Pritzker if neither of them win the next Dem presidential primary...

They're 100% going to pull a Cuomo if a progressive wins. I expect they'll even get Kamala to run in the primary, just as a sacrificial lamb so Newsom/Pritzker won't be the the least progressive on stage.

Really the reason they're so scared of Mamdani, is there's enough time to show it works before the presidential primary. And the current DNC chair is a huge fan of Mamdani:

One is, he campaigned for something. And this is a critical piece. We can't just be in a perpetual state of resisting Donald Trump. Of course, we have to resist Donald Trump. There's no doubt about it for all the reasons we just talked about. But we also have to give people a sense of what we're for, what the Democratic Party is fighting for, and what we would do if they put us back in power.

And that's really critical. And I think that's one of the lessons from Mamdani's campaign, is that he focused on affordability. He focused on a message that was resonant with voters, and he campaigned for something, not against other people or against other things. He campaigned on a vision of how he was going to make New York City a better place to live.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/dnc-chair-on-the-path-to-winning-back-voters-and-lessons-democrats-can-learn-from-mamdani

Billionaires are shitting themselves, they'll just never let the media they own report on it.

Source on that? There have to be quite a few billionaires in NYC, how much are they spending on that anti-Zohran campaign?

I guess they’re afraid of a wider movement.

Yes! And, taxes are abhorrent to their sense of justice. It's disgusting.

The idea that California is more than lukewarm liberal has always been one of the biggest lies of American politics. The state has barely budged from its Reagan Era in terms of real public policy. The Silicon Valley sector all just put on "We love Bill Clinton" merch back in the 90s, because he was nice enough not to bust up the telecom and OS monopolies when he had the chance.

Dianne Feinstein raised the Confederate Flag over San Fransisco, practically before Harvey Milk's body was cold. Gavin Newsom's been at war with the homeless longer than George Bush has had us at war with Terror. From Duncan Hunter to Devin Nunes to Darrell Issa, the state's put up some of the most naked fascists in Congress.

California's political scene is slightly to the left of United Russia. They're as Communist as a Pinkerton at a Picket Line.

Yeah NYC is one of the few places in the world that can definitely call millionaires’ bluff on this one. Where the fuck else are they going to live?

But also, why do 14 people have that much fucking money.

That's because their bootstraps were much more enormous then others around them. So they had to put in more work into pulling them up. So they deserve much more money than the other 99% of people. /s

You discount the most important bit: laborer availability, service availability and quality of life. Also productivity. You cannot just move when you require a large amount of people and services.

it even benefits the economy, because the poor people would have more money to consume, therefore companies would sell more and that would stimulate the economy, including creating jobs.

when you're rich you pay an accountant to worry about that shit for you

The current DNC chair has been saying for months that not only did Mamdani run a campaign that should be emulated, but that his policy positions are what voters want nationally too.

So yeah...

The next Dem presidential candidate will likely want to do it nationally. And without a corrupt DNC working against progressives in the primary, a progressive is gonna win the primary.

There's lots to be optimistic about, but billionaires aren't going to let it be said in the media they own.

Mamdani in NYC is enraging the wealthy, and he's looking for less of an income tax. ~2% increase on income over $1 million.

...he has proposed creating an additional tax bracket for New York City residents with income over $1 million, which would be taxed at 5.9%.

In addition to increasing income taxes, Mamdani has proposed raising the state’s highest corporate tax rate from 7.25% to 11.5%.

The purpose of shrieking about capital flight is not to legitimately warn the public of an actual danger. It's to scare them into inaction. They declare that any incursion into their wealth, no matter how slight will bring about the end of the world because it's possible to build momentum from there and the rich might actually have to contribute something other than their existence.

Its pretty bizarre to treat rich people like they're some incredible credit to their communities simply for existing. Does the money rub off on people near them or something?

That is in fact Sam Reich's dad. Less importantly, he is also former secretary of labor.

Even then they wouldn't go. The benefits of living in NYC are far more than the value of your real estate.