Lemdro.id

If there was any hope New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani would inch towards the middle or appeal to moderate Democrats as he launched his administration, it vanished in the bitter January air that ushered in the start of his term.

During his inaugural address Thursday, Mamdani sought to send a clear message: That the left had won the hard-fought race for mayor, and his administration is now intent on showing the rest of the country that progressive liberals can, in fact, govern.

At a time of deep political division across the US, Mamdani stuck to his political identity and ideology, reminding the crowd he had been “elected as a democratic socialist,” promising to “govern as a democratic socialist” and castigating the politics of complacency and the political establishment for failing its constituency.

It was an unapologetically progressive speech, in which Mamdani framed the mainstream Democratic party as one that lacked imagination and ambition. Then, he vowed to not “abandon my principles for fear of being deemed radical.”

“In writing this address, I have been told that this is the occasion to reset expectations, that I should use this opportunity to encourage the people of New York to ask for little and expect even less,” he said. “I will do no such thing. The only expectation I seek to reset is that of small expectations.”

Mamdani also tried to strike a unifying tone. He spoke directly to opponents and critics who remain skeptical the 34-year-old former state assemblyman will be able to run the largest city in the nation and enact an agenda many consider too liberal and unrealistic.

Mamdani has proposed taxing the city’s wealthiest residents and raising the corporate tax rate – moves that would require the support of the state legislature and the governor – to pay for his signature agenda items: universal childcare, “fast and free” city buses and enacting a rent freeze for rent stabilized tenants.

“If you are a New Yorker, I am your mayor,” Mamdani told the crowd. “Regardless of whether we agree, I will protect you, celebrate with you, mourn alongside you and never, not for a second, hide from you.”

Mamdani’s focus on working-class New Yorkers was peppered throughout his speech. He spoke of taxi drivers and restaurant servers, hospital workers and subway operators, describing people who work in the shadows and often go unnoticed while struggling to stay afloat.

Shortly before addressing the crowd, a duo performed the “Bread and Roses” anthem –– the title a nod to a political slogan that became a rallying cry for workers’ rights in 1912. The imagery is meant to symbolize people’s need for basic necessities, but also beauty. In choosing the performance, Mamdani’s administration appeared to try and tell New Yorkers it was possible to have both.

“What’s radical is a system which gives so much to so few and denies so many people the basic necessities of life,” Mamdani said, quoting Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who administered Mamdani’s public oath of office. Sanders praised New Yorkers and Mamdani for giving hope and inspiration to “people all over this country.”

The mayor marked the first day of his administration by building upon his campaign crusade to freeze the rent with a series of orders designed to address the housing crisis.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced three executive orders to address NYC’s housing crisis: revitalizing the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, creating the LIFT Task Force to accelerate housing development on city-owned land, and establishing the SPEED Task Force to streamline housing construction procedures.

Mamdani's office released the following descriptions of the new task forces. 

• LIFT Task Force (Land Inventory Fast Track) will leverage city-owned land to accelerate housing development, increase supply, and drive down costs. The task force will review city-owned properties and identify sites suitable for housing development no later than July 1, 2026.
• The SPEED Task Force (Streamlining Procedures to Expedite Equitable Development) will identify and remove bureaucratic and permitting barriers that drive up costs and slow housing construction and lease-up, making it more affordable to build and easier to access housing across New York City.

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Before alleging fraud in Minnesota’s Somali community, right-wing YouTuber Nick Shirley built a following with anti-immigrant clips.

The day after Christmas, far-right YouTuber Nick Shirley posted a video claiming to have exposed fraud at Somali-owned day care centers in Minnesota. Portions of the 42-minute video — mostly scenes where Shirley is turned away at the day cares — went viral in conservative circles, catching the attention of the Trump administration, which was already at work targeting Minnesota’s Somali community amid its broader war on immigrants.

The video, which has been viewed more than 2.2 million times on YouTube and millions more on other platforms, sparked a renewed crackdown in Minneapolis, with the Department of Homeland Security announcing on Monday it would visit 30 sites suspected of fraud across the city.

This isn’t the first time the conservative YouTuber has gotten the attention of the Trump administration. Shirley participated in Donald Trump’s “Roundtable on Antifa” in October after an altercation at an anti-ICE protest. At age 23, his videos aren’t merely influencing his audiences — they’re also influencing government action.

The CIA has assessed Ukraine was not targeting a residence used by Russian President Vladimir Putin in a recent drone attack in the north of his country, according to US officials, undercutting an assertion the Russian leader had made to President Donald Trump in a Monday phone call.

The CIA’s director John Ratcliffe briefed Trump on the assessment Wednesday, the officials said.

Sources said Ratcliffe later briefed Trump that the CIA did not believe it was true. And on Wednesday, Trump appeared to have adopted a more skeptical posture toward posting, posting a link to a New York Post editorial on Truth Social with the headline, “Putin ‘attack’ bluster shows Russia is the one standing in the way of peace.” The Post’s editorial board noted it was “rich that Putin, who has waged a brutal war for nearly four years, believes that any violence in his vicinity merits special outrage” and asserted that “Any attack on Putin is more than justified.”

Well...in my defense, I was tired xD

On the other hand this feels like a perfect representation. I could not have put that feeling of new year in 1000 words. So I guess that makes it a 11/10 entry for me.

And I think I can safely say, that perfectionism is not holding me back :)

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/57916255

They tend to fly over people's heads.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6440135

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A politician in the Russian Volga region city of Samara has been charged with “abusing press freedom” for a speech he gave in the regional assembly condemning Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine, independent news channel 7x7 Horizontal Russia reported on Thursday.

Grigory Yeremeyev, 69, a member of the Democratic Party of Russia, a party founded in the 1990s that is currently unrepresented at any level of government in the country, faces a fine of up to 100,000 rubles (€1,080) over a speech he gave in late December when he was the only politician to accept the annual invitation to parties not represented in the Samara Regional Duma to address the assembly.

Yeremeyev also posted a transcript of his speech online, in which he said that Vladimir Putin had “long since understood the error” of invading Ukraine, but was now unable to withdraw his troops without going down in history as having lost the war.

Yeremeyev suggested that the Samara deputies should apologise to their constituents, “share responsibility for the failure with Putin” and advise him to stop the invasion, and urged the body to encourage other regional parliaments to vote for a similar initiative.

Continuing the war would lead to the “moral degradation of both parties to the conflict” as propaganda and the daily murder of hundreds of citizens “become commonplace”, Yeremeyev warned. He said that if NATO could not defeat Russia, and vice versa, “the special military operation would crush human lives and destinies” and was “an irrational waste of financial resources”.

...

The Duma also passed a resolution calling for Yeremeyev to be assessed as a “foreign agent”, and describing his speech as “a deliberate attempt to discredit” the assembly.

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/grant-gustin-next-to-oliver-queens-grave

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/41050632

Noire wants to relax with you!