We Need to Talk About Zohran

[0:00] New progressive politicians are sprouting up across the country like wing stops, [0:04] but there is one clear leader of the pack that I want to talk more about. [0:08] Not Hassan Piker, someone with smaller biceps and a bigger smile. [0:12] The mayor of my city, Zoran Mamdani. [0:15] That's right, it's been almost a year since Zoran was elected and I'm finally ready to talk about it [0:21] because it has been a wild ride to watch him go from this random guy struggling to get people [0:26] to talk to him on the street to this. [0:28] A big night for the mayor of New York City who endorsed three far-left candidates for Congress [0:33] and all three won, raising questions about the future of the Democratic Party. [0:37] How did this happen? [0:38] How does a guy who looks like he would be on a Newsweek cover in 2001 titled, [0:42] Why Do They Hate Us? [0:43] have so much of America swooning? [0:45] Among New York voters, Zoran's favorability is 69%, [0:49] but for his party nationally right now, it's 40%. [0:53] So what is Zoran's secret? [0:55] Well, part of it is that he's not just saying things that voters want to hear. [1:00] He's actually doing those things. [1:02] New York, the Independent Rent Guidelines Board just froze the rent. [1:05] We're done kicking the can down the road. [1:08] We're announcing a plan to repair the city-owned section of the BQE. [1:11] I'm proud to announce that our city's budget is fully balanced. [1:14] Can I just say that as an American, it feels super bizarre to watch a politician do things? [1:21] You know what I mean? [1:22] Like, our standards have gotten so low that New Yorkers are reacting to basic street repairs [1:27] like their mayor is healing the blind. [1:30] You see how in the morning I said there was two potholes, right? [1:33] Look what happened after I come back from work. [1:37] What, nigga? [1:38] Nigga. [1:40] Mom Donnie, I did not know you was like that, nigga. [1:42] Whether it's potholes or rent freezes or free childcare, Zoran is reminding people that [1:47] it is possible for the government to actually improve their lives. [1:51] Now, the reason he can do this is because the mayor is an executive office. [1:56] A legislator like AOC can introduce a bill, give a speech, cast a vote, and make incels [2:00] lose their mind just by freezing her eggs. [2:02] But a mayor, oh, a mayor can direct city agencies, appoint officials, and actually run a government. [2:10] He can use the mayor's office to get shit done, unlike the last guy who used it to get [2:14] free Wi-Fi on Turkish Airlines. [2:18] But I think there's a deeper explanation here of why Zoran has become such a political superstar [2:22] in such a short period of time. [2:24] Yes, he has executive power in a city that's bigger than a lot of small countries, but more [2:28] important than that is the platform that he is executing, a platform that when you get [2:33] down to it, is all about economic justice. [2:38] When I ran for mayor, I said I was going to tax the rich. [2:41] Well, today, we're taxing the rich. [2:45] If you want to understand why Zoran's mayorship is important, you need to understand where [2:48] his politics came from. [2:50] I'm not talking about India. [2:51] I am not talking about Uganda. [2:53] I am talking about a place 10 blocks south of his office in City Hall. [2:57] And no New York Post readers, I am not talking about the World Trade Center. [3:02] I am talking about Wall Street, where on a different fateful September morning, shit [3:08] went crazy. [3:10] The Dow tumbled more than 500 points after two pillars of the street tumbled over the [3:16] weekend. [3:17] Lehman Brothers, a 158-year-old firm, filed for bankruptcy. [3:22] Meanwhile, Merrill Lynch, fearing it could be next, agreed in an act of desperation to a [3:27] shotgun marriage with Bank of America. [3:30] The 2008 financial crisis fundamentally changed American politics. [3:34] Everyone watching this probably takes it for granted that the economy is rigged to benefit [3:38] the rich. [3:38] But for decades before 2008, most Americans felt like the economy was basically fair. [3:44] After World War II, worker pay generally rose, along with productivity. [3:49] The wealth was spread out. [3:50] People had decent jobs, houses, cars, pensions. [3:55] Life was good. [3:56] I mean, mainly for white dudes. [3:58] But in 1980, Ronald Reagan came along and said, folks, we can do better. [4:05] Taxing the rich and spreading their wealth to everyone else, that's backwards. [4:09] Let's not do that. [4:10] What if instead we let the corporations and the wealthy people make as much money as possible [4:15] so that their wealth naturally trickles down to everyone else? [4:19] Our aim is to increase our national wealth so all will have more, not just redistribute [4:25] what we already have, which is just a sharing of scarcity. [4:29] That's right, folks. [4:30] The wealthiest are going to take all that wealth and give it right back to all of you, [4:35] whether you're their golf caddy or their landscaper or their four Jamaican nannies [4:39] raising their two kids. [4:41] But if you're not one of those people, you don't get any of the money. [4:43] At the end of the day, the promise that tax cuts for the wealthy would benefit everyone [4:48] shockingly did not pan out. [4:50] During Reagan's presidency, the taxation rate for the top bracket dropped from 70% to 28%, [4:56] but inequality widened. [4:58] And even if the slogans and some of the policies were different over the years, [5:02] from Reagan to Bush 1.0 to Bill Clinton to Bush 2.0, [5:05] that trend of increasing inequality continued. [5:08] From 1979 to 2007, three-fifths of all income growth went to the top 1%, [5:15] and CEO pay went from 30 times average worker pay to 351 times average worker pay. [5:22] America was becoming a two-tiered society. [5:25] Now, in case you missed it because you were like five years old and you were watching [5:27] SpongeBob at home, Wall Street banks, mortgage brokers, and other players spent years [5:32] building a massive market in mortgages and mortgage-backed securities. [5:36] That helped create a bubble in housing prices and the stock market. [5:40] But when the scale of the fraud inside that mortgage machine was exposed, [5:44] those bubbles popped, bringing the global economy right up to the edge of complete collapse. [5:51] Literally. [5:51] They came in, described a financial meltdown of epic proportions. [5:58] And when that was finished, the chairman of the Fed said, [6:04] if we do not act now, we will not have an economy by Monday. [6:09] We will not have an economy by Monday. [6:12] We're talking about ATMs not working, knife fights at Kroger's over the last three containers of hummus, [6:18] every downtown looking like the Eagles just won the Super Bowl. [6:21] So Congress passed a $700 billion bailout to stabilize the financial system. [6:27] And the Fed would ultimately pour trillions of dollars in emergency loans and liquidity into it. [6:32] But a big chunk of that bailout money was used to pay for Wall Street executives' huge salaries and bonuses. [6:38] And no major Wall Street CEO went to jail for f***ing blowing up the economy. [6:43] The financial crisis was a daylight bank robbery where the bankers were the robbers. [6:48] And instead of being punished, they were rescued. [6:50] Meanwhile, regular people who lost their homes, jobs, and retirement savings weren't. [6:56] The closest thing regular people got to a bailout was HAMP, [6:59] a program that promised to help millions of homeowners avoid foreclosure. [7:03] And then, guess what? [7:05] It didn't. [7:05] The government's HAMP program was set up with almost $30 billion in federal funds [7:10] designed to help 3 to 4 million people through this current foreclosure crisis. [7:15] But so far, HAMP has spent only $1.2 billion and has helped only 670,000 homeowners. [7:23] The president had bailed out the big banks, and now the big banks don't want to bail out the little people. [7:32] The Obama administration did tighten bank regulations and pass the Affordable Care Act [7:36] and shot a guy in the face and then dumped his body in the ocean. [7:39] But even that wasn't enough to change this feeling that the rich were running the board and everyone else was getting f***ed. [7:47] Between 2005 and 2009, the net worth of U.S. households fell 28%, and the net worth of black households fell 53%. [7:56] By the summer of 2011, as the economy kept stalling and the waves of foreclosures kept coming, [8:02] Obama's approval rating hit an all-time low of 38%. [8:05] And all that anger that had been building since the 08 bailout exploded onto the streets. [8:12] They are hundreds strong, but the protesters calling themselves Occupy Wall Street... [8:17] Here in New York, thousands of demonstrators descended on the financial district. [8:21] 700 protesters were arrested as they crossed the Brooklyn Bridge. [8:25] 25 cities from coast to coast have seen the financial industry protest this weekend. [8:30] The anti-corporate rallies intensified over the weekend, spreading around the globe. [8:34] More than 145 cities have joined the cause. [8:37] Thousands of people took this feeling, this feeling that something deeply unfair was happening in the economy, [8:42] and gave it a voice. [8:44] Occupy Wall Street wasn't about finding solutions. [8:47] It was about articulating a language to describe the problem. [8:50] We are the 9%! [8:53] Protesters call themselves the 99%, frustrated over economic inequality [8:58] and what they describe as corporate greed amid the country's richest 1%. [9:03] I think that the wealthiest 1% has benefited by just taking advantage of working class people. [9:08] 99% of the people need to be prospering, not just the top 1%. [9:12] Inequality and economic justice have been in the discourse for so long [9:16] that it's easy to forget how outside the mainstream this was at the time. [9:20] The media was taken completely off guard. [9:22] CNN's Erin Burnett literally had a segment on her show [9:26] where she went around and made fun of protesters for being ungrateful. [9:31] Seriously? [9:32] The Occupy Wall Street protest entered its third week today. [9:36] What started as less than a dozen college students camping out in a park [9:39] near the New York Stock Exchange is now hundreds of protesters, [9:43] and it's spread to other cities. [9:44] But what are they protesting? [9:46] Nobody seems to know. [9:48] So this afternoon, we went to Wall Street to find out. [9:51] This is unemployed software developer Dan. [9:53] So do you know that taxpayers actually made money on the Wall Street bailout? [9:57] I was not aware of that. [9:58] Imagine Erin Burnett at Tinnaman Square. [10:01] Blocking traffic? [10:03] Seriously? [10:05] As the protests spread throughout the country, [10:07] they got the attention of politicians. [10:09] President Obama started to echo the language of the streets. [10:12] In the last few decades, the average income of the top 1% [10:15] has gone up by more than 250%. [10:20] To $1.2 million per year. [10:24] And yet, over the last decade, [10:25] the incomes of most Americans have actually fallen by about 6%. [10:29] But one politician in particular really got behind Occupy Wall Street. [10:34] A guy who had been trying to bring more attention to inequality for decades. [10:39] This old dude in the Senate named Bernard. [10:42] I think it is absolutely appropriate that the protesters are now forcing a debate [10:48] and a discussion in this country on the huge issue of income and wealth inequality. [10:54] We do have to ask whether it is morally and economically appropriate [10:58] that 400 people in this country own more wealth [11:01] than the bottom half of America, 150 million people. [11:05] Bernie Sanders took the baton from Occupy Wall Street [11:07] and then ran with it all the way to a presidential campaign. [11:11] He was the first politician to connect the outrage articulated by Occupy Wall Street [11:16] to a national political program. [11:18] Let me be very clear and let the top 1% understand this. [11:26] There is something profoundly wrong [11:30] when the top 1 tenth of 1% owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90% [11:38] and when 99% of all new income goes to the top 1%. [11:45] Occupy Wall Street was criticized for not being specific. [11:49] So Bernie got specific. [11:51] Free tuition at public colleges and universities, [11:54] universal child care, Medicare for all, [11:56] policies that benefited the 99% of regular people. [12:00] But when it came time to explain who would pay for this agenda, [12:03] the 1%, [12:03] CNN's Erin Burnett was back on her bullshit. [12:07] It is sound. [12:09] It is paid for, Erin, by attacks on Wall Street speculation. [12:13] When Wall Street's illegal behavior destroyed our economy, [12:18] middle class bailed them out. [12:19] It is now time for them to help the middle class. [12:22] You know, during the midst of the financial crisis, [12:24] when people said, [12:25] let Bank of America go under, let them go under, [12:27] they don't deserve to survive. [12:28] You know, you're not just talking about the tens of thousands of people [12:30] that would have worked for that bank, [12:32] but also the millions of Americans [12:34] that have owned shares of that bank in their 401k, their IRA. [12:38] Those millions of Americans own stocks now, [12:41] middle class Americans, [12:42] who could end up paying for this. [12:43] He mentioned the bailout in passing. [12:45] And she was like, [12:46] oh, you mean the good idea? [12:47] The bailout? [12:48] You know, the best idea of all time [12:49] that Americans actually made money off of? [12:51] Did you know that? [12:52] Did you know that, Bernie? [12:53] Seriously? [12:53] I think Aaron watches Ocean's Eleven and roots for the casino. [12:56] Not only was corporate America hostile to Bernie, [12:59] so was the Democratic Party establishment. [13:01] Nancy Pelosi said, [13:02] Medicare for all isn't going to happen [13:04] and we're not raising taxes. [13:05] And FYI, we heart capitalism. [13:08] We're capitalists. [13:09] And that's just the way it is. [13:11] So the party bosses won and lost. [13:15] Four years later, [13:16] when Bernie was again showing momentum, [13:18] they ran back the same play [13:19] and lined up behind Joe Biden before Super Tuesday, [13:22] helping him clinch the nomination. [13:24] Former Mayor Pete Buttigieg [13:26] ended his campaign yesterday. [13:28] He signaled the decision [13:29] is designed to stop frontrunner Senator Bernie Sanders [13:31] from amassing an insurmountable lead [13:34] in delegates on Tuesday. [13:35] But Sanders continues to be the frontrunner. [13:38] Polls show him ahead [13:38] in delegate-rich California and Texas. [13:41] Bernie had built up enough political capital [13:42] to get some of his priorities into Biden's agenda, [13:45] which led to some progressive wins, [13:47] like lower prescription drug costs. [13:49] But the rich kept running away with it [13:51] while the rest of the country [13:52] grew more and more concerned [13:54] about their own economic situation. [13:56] And when Kamala Harris was asked [13:57] what she would do differently [13:59] than the guy who was about to lose, [14:01] this is what she said. [14:02] Would you have done something differently [14:04] than President Biden [14:05] during the past four years? [14:08] There is not a thing that comes to mind. [14:11] Yeah. [14:12] Wow. [14:14] Okay. [14:15] That might be the easiest question [14:16] I have ever seen a politician [14:18] mess up that badly. [14:19] That is like an actor getting asked, [14:21] hey, what are you most excited [14:22] for people to see in this movie? [14:23] And then answering, [14:24] Bill Cosby is innocent. [14:25] This was a layup. [14:26] Okay. [14:27] And just 15 days after Kamala fumbled it, [14:29] Zora Mamdani entered the race [14:30] for New York City mayor. [14:31] And that's where I'll pick up the story [14:33] right after this quick break. [14:35] My name is Hasan Minhaj, [14:37] and I'm a very hairy guy. [14:38] I'm very particular about what razors [14:40] I use on my face. [14:41] And it's gotta be Harry's Plus. [14:43] But hey, I'm a professional clown. [14:45] You should listen to other customers. [14:47] Derek from Charlotte, North Carolina says, [14:53] A remarkably pleasant shaving experience. [14:56] The razor performed perfectly. [14:58] Felix from Los Altos, California thinks this. [15:01] Better than the original Harry's razor [15:02] I purchased several years ago. [15:04] Reggie from Memphis, Tennessee says, [15:06] It was a major improvement [15:08] in the overall shaving quality, period. [15:10] Eli from Bozeman, Montana says, [15:12] Exceeded my expectations in every area [15:14] had high expectations and you surpassed them. [15:16] Run on sentence, no period. [15:18] James from Portland, Oregon thinks, [15:19] The handle feels like it was custom made [15:22] for your hand. [15:26] Amos from Beckley, West Virginia. [15:28] He says, [15:28] No second shave to get the missed ones. [15:30] Marcus from Tulsa, Oklahoma. [15:32] Here's what he's got to say. [15:34] The Harry's Plus handle [15:35] is a premium man's razor. [15:38] Carlos from San Antonio, Texas says, [15:40] My husband and I both use Harry's [15:42] with no issue. [15:42] We're big fans. [15:43] He shaves his head with them [15:44] since he has a beard [15:45] and I shave my legs, armpits, etc. [15:51] Boyd from Aramnoir, Iowa. [15:57] I'll just say Iowa. [15:58] Boyd from Iowa says, [16:00] Who needs therapy [16:01] when you can achieve [16:02] the perfect chin strap with Harry's? [16:04] Levi from Muncie, Indiana says, [16:07] My mutton chops have never been so precise. [16:10] Hassan from Davis, California says, [16:16] Zoran was a direct descendant [16:18] of Bernie's political movement. [16:20] He has called Bernie [16:21] the single most influential [16:22] political figure in my life. [16:24] But crucially, [16:25] he didn't do a shot for shot remake [16:26] of Bernie's campaign. [16:28] Zoran saw what happened [16:29] in 2016 and 2020. [16:30] Bernie fought the establishment [16:32] head on [16:32] and he got shut down. [16:34] He said, [16:34] The rich is screwing you. [16:36] And the establishment was like, [16:37] Hey, that's divisive. [16:38] And when you think about it, [16:39] it's kind of sexist. [16:41] So instead of talking [16:41] about economic justice explicitly, [16:44] Mumdani did a brilliant jujitsu move. [16:46] He hid a message [16:47] about economic justice [16:48] inside of a politically neutral concept. [16:52] We deserve a mayor [16:55] who puts every single tool [16:58] at our disposal to use [16:59] in delivering working people [17:01] a life that they can afford. [17:02] This is a city [17:03] that needs to be affordable [17:04] for the people [17:04] who build it every day. [17:05] And I remember the words [17:06] of Dr. King who said, [17:09] What good is having the right [17:10] to sit at a lunch counter [17:12] if you can't afford a hamburger? [17:15] What good is the right [17:17] to live in New York City [17:18] if you can't afford your rent? [17:20] Do you understand [17:20] how politically potent [17:22] this issue is? [17:23] You can go up to any cab driver, [17:25] any boomer, [17:26] any random dude, [17:27] from Staten Island. [17:29] Just pull out a clementine [17:30] and be like, [17:30] Can you believe this thing's four bucks? [17:32] It's four bucks! [17:34] This is four dollars! [17:36] And they'll be like, [17:36] Yeah, it's right. [17:37] It's four back in here. [17:38] It used to be a dollar. [17:39] I mean, this is [17:40] instant connection here, folks. [17:42] Even when they were still [17:43] tossing people in volcanoes [17:44] as an offering to the gods, [17:46] you could still find a guy [17:47] in a hard hat being like, [17:48] Three virgins [17:49] for a bountiful harvest? [17:51] Are you f***ing kidding me? [17:53] But here's the critical move [17:54] that Zoran pulled off here. [17:55] By focusing on affordability, [17:57] Zoran was able to attack [17:58] the rich indirectly [18:00] because affordability [18:01] is about more than prices. [18:04] It's about corporate greed. [18:05] It's about oligarchy. [18:07] It's about labor power [18:08] and organizing [18:08] to demand higher wages. [18:10] Because if workers [18:11] made more money, [18:12] they could afford [18:13] more of what they need. [18:15] Zoran's entire affordability agenda [18:17] is really about [18:19] making the economy more fair. [18:21] I'll make buses fast and free. [18:23] So I can just get where I'm going. [18:25] I'll make child care available [18:28] to all New Yorkers at no cost. [18:30] I want to raise my kid in New York. [18:31] And I'll freeze the rent [18:33] for every single [18:34] rent-stabilized tenant. [18:35] By framing his policies [18:36] as making life more affordable, [18:38] they were harder to portray [18:39] as somehow ideological [18:41] or dangerous. [18:42] I mean, what politician [18:44] in their right mind [18:45] is going to come out [18:45] against affordability? [18:46] That's f***ing crazy. [18:49] You know, there's this fake narrative [18:51] that the Democrats [18:52] talk about affordability. [18:54] They just say the word. [18:55] It doesn't mean anything [18:55] to anybody. [18:56] Affordability drives [18:57] Donald Trump crazy [18:58] because it is saying something. [19:01] It's saying something [19:02] about economic fairness, [19:03] but it's hiding [19:04] in the subtext. [19:06] And Trump doesn't [19:07] understand subtext. [19:08] He doesn't even [19:09] understand text. [19:11] He called the Pope [19:11] weak on crime. [19:13] Literally, he called [19:13] the Pope weak on crime. [19:16] Now, even though Zoran [19:17] was able to hide the ball [19:18] a little bit [19:18] with affordability, [19:19] the media, uh-oh, [19:20] they smoked that brown boy out. [19:22] Because you know [19:23] if any politician [19:24] is offering policies [19:26] that help poor people, [19:27] they're going to get [19:28] that question. [19:29] The question that never [19:30] seems to come up [19:31] with corporate tax cuts [19:32] or the Pentagon budget [19:33] or rocket-propelled grenades [19:35] for ICE agents. [19:36] How will you pay [19:37] for these programs? [19:37] Can you explain [19:38] how you will make buses free? [19:40] You have to be able to pay [19:41] for what you've promised. [19:42] I just want to know [19:43] where the money coming from. [19:44] See, I count. [19:46] Okay? [19:46] I count. [19:47] The people who love [19:48] Mom Donnie the most [19:49] are not people [19:51] who pay bills every day. [19:52] Stephen A., [19:53] you can't start complaining [19:54] about Nepo Kids [19:54] when DraftKings pays you [19:55] 500 grand a week [19:57] to say, [19:57] preposterous! [19:58] But it's a fair question. [20:00] Who's going to pay [20:00] these bills? [20:01] In a city [20:02] where 43 Fortune 500 [20:04] companies are headquartered [20:05] with annual revenue [20:06] of $2 trillion, [20:07] home to 123 billionaires [20:09] worth a combined [20:10] $759 billion, [20:13] a city where helicopter taxis [20:14] are a growth industry, [20:15] where could you possibly [20:17] find the money [20:18] to pay for all this stuff? [20:19] We will do so [20:20] in two key ways. [20:21] The first is to match [20:22] the state's top corporate tax rate [20:24] to that of New Jersey. [20:25] We are at 7.25%. [20:27] They're at 11.5%. [20:29] Corporations can pay it over there. [20:30] They can pay it over here. [20:31] And the second is [20:32] taxing the top 1% [20:33] of New Yorkers. [20:34] We're talking about people [20:35] who make a million dollars [20:35] a year or more, [20:37] taxing them just by [20:37] a flat 2% tax increase. [20:39] Now, it's crazy [20:40] that I even need to say this [20:41] because it's so obvious, [20:42] but guys, [20:43] taxing the rich [20:44] is very popular. [20:46] Over 70% of Americans [20:48] think billionaires [20:49] should pay more in tax, [20:50] but this policy plank [20:52] of taxing the rich [20:53] might have been [20:54] the single biggest barrier [20:55] to Zoran's election. [20:57] Wall Street CEOs [20:58] and other billionaires [20:59] were so threatened [21:00] by his agenda [21:00] that they spent [21:01] over $40 million [21:03] trying to stop him. [21:05] And once again, [21:06] a familiar face [21:06] showed up in the media [21:07] to run defense [21:09] for Wall Street. [21:09] If you're going to be [21:10] adding 2% to people [21:11] at a million, [21:12] I just did the math. [21:13] I'm not saying cry for them. [21:15] I'm saying if they leave, [21:17] you're not going to get that money. [21:18] That corporate tax rate [21:19] that you're talking about, [21:20] that's a big increase. [21:21] Do you like capitalism? [21:23] Aaron, [21:23] this is getting crazy. [21:25] We have 15 years of footage [21:27] of you going goo-goo-ga-ga [21:29] over the top tax bracket. [21:31] God damn it. [21:31] If you love Wall Street so much, [21:33] why don't you just marry it? [21:35] What's that? [21:35] She married it? [21:39] Oh, shit. [21:39] I mean, really, [21:42] about that life, huh? [21:44] I mean, seriously? [21:45] Now, I wasn't sure [21:46] if I even wanted to mention this [21:47] because I didn't want [21:48] to platform them, [21:49] but it's worth taking a beat [21:51] to talk about Zoran's opponent [21:52] in the campaign [21:53] because there's a good reason [21:54] Mamdani was such a long shot [21:56] at winning. [21:57] He was up against a challenger [21:58] with huge name recognition [22:00] and very wealthy backers. [22:02] I am talking about [22:03] the New York Times. [22:06] After announcing [22:06] it would stop endorsements [22:07] for local races, [22:08] the Times came out of retirement [22:10] to tell voters [22:11] not to vote for Mamdani. [22:13] Don't you dare do it. [22:14] They wrote, [22:15] quote, [22:16] We do not believe [22:16] that Mr. Mamdani deserves [22:17] a spot on New Yorkers' ballots. [22:19] His experience is too thin, [22:21] which is fair. [22:22] Unlike Andrew Cuomo, [22:23] Zoran had zero experience [22:25] being accused [22:26] of groping female employees. [22:28] He was a total noob [22:29] at using public transit money [22:31] to bail out ski resorts. [22:32] And my man [22:33] hadn't even killed [22:34] one senior citizen. [22:35] It's like, [22:36] how the f*** are you [22:37] gonna run this city [22:37] with no dead bodies [22:38] in the trunk? [22:39] These attacks [22:40] from the media [22:41] and Cuomo [22:41] on Zoran's experience [22:43] and his economics [22:43] ultimately didn't have [22:45] much of an impact. [22:46] So critics, [22:47] they shifted their focus [22:48] to his identity. [22:49] Now, obviously, [22:51] the New York Post [22:51] did their usual thing [22:52] and played [22:53] Six Degrees of 9-11, [22:54] but the rest of the media [22:55] and the rest [22:56] of the political establishment [22:57] was a little bit more subtle. [22:58] They latched onto [22:59] one particular phrase [23:00] to try to portray Zoran [23:02] as outside the mainstream. [23:04] Do you condemn that phrase, [23:06] globalize the Intifada? [23:07] This is a man [23:08] who believes [23:09] in globalizing the Intifada. [23:11] Globalizing the Intifada. [23:13] Globalize. [23:13] Globalize. [23:14] Globalize. [23:15] Globalize. [23:15] Globalize. [23:16] Globalize the Intifada. [23:17] I'm not gonna get [23:18] into the details [23:18] of how this phrase [23:19] got attached [23:20] to a New York City [23:20] mayoral candidate [23:21] because we know [23:23] Zoran is a Muslim, [23:25] so he has to prove [23:26] that he's not anti-Semitic. [23:27] But since there's no evidence [23:28] that he's anti-Semitic, [23:30] he was asked to disprove something [23:31] that had no proof, [23:33] which is impossible. [23:34] I mean, Punchbowl News [23:35] actually summed up [23:36] this entire controversy [23:37] perfectly with the correction [23:38] at the bottom [23:39] of one of their articles. [23:40] Quote, [23:41] in this edition, [23:41] we previously wrote [23:42] that Mamdani had said [23:43] globalize the Intifada. [23:44] He has not said that, [23:45] but he has refused [23:46] to condemn the phrase, [23:47] we regret the air. [23:48] I mean, [23:49] goddamn. [23:50] Good thing that correction [23:51] was buried at the bottom [23:52] of a newsletter [23:53] from over a year ago [23:54] so nobody would ever see it again. [23:55] So embarrassing, [23:57] Punchbowl News. [23:57] In spite of all that opposition, [23:59] voters had the final say [24:00] and they elected Zoran Mamdani [24:01] as the mayor of New York City [24:03] in just 10 blocks north. [24:04] of where Wall Street banks [24:05] blew up the economy in 2008 [24:07] and five blocks north [24:08] of Zuccotti Park [24:09] where Occupy Wall Street [24:10] blew up Aaron Burnett's brain [24:11] in 2011. [24:12] A politician who inherited [24:14] Occupy's political language, [24:16] Bernie Sanders' economic program, [24:18] and an actual executive office [24:20] entered City Hall. [24:22] Zoran is the end result [24:23] of decades of anger [24:25] over inequality. [24:26] But the crazy thing is, [24:27] in spite of all this political drama [24:29] that I just went through, [24:30] that inequality and that anger, [24:32] it continues to get worse. [24:34] The top 0.1% [24:35] now owns about 13% [24:37] of America's total assets. [24:39] The mayor of New York City [24:40] isn't just going to [24:40] single-handedly fix that. [24:42] This is bigger than a pothole. [24:44] But if his party follows his lead [24:45] and focuses on improving [24:46] the lives of the 99% [24:48] by, yes, [24:49] taking from the 1% [24:50] or the 0.1% [24:51] or just [24:52] these three psychos, [24:54] there might be a path [24:55] out of the place that we're in. [24:56] And if that seems scary, [24:57] remember, [24:58] the only thing we have to fear [25:00] is the dystopian future [25:02] of techno-feudalism [25:02] where the ultra-rich [25:03] live in fortified enclaves [25:04] while the rest of us [25:05] toil in cobalt mines [25:06] to feed the almighty algorithms [25:08] orbiting in space-based [25:09] data centers [25:10] controlling all of us [25:11] from above. [25:12] And of course, fear itself. [25:13] And of course, [25:14] well, nuclear war [25:14] and pandemics. [25:15] Honestly, that'll probably [25:16] be what gets us in the end. [25:18] Stay safe out there, though. [25:19] Watch Best of the Best [25:19] streaming now on Netflix. [25:20] It's a great movie [25:21] about friendship, family, [25:22] and sisterhood. [25:23] Stream it now.