Turn The Volume Up
Mamdani wins as National look to evict the homeless.
Hellfire isn’t really just flames
Right now, it’s a city of stains
All primed for it to be my stage
Turn the volume up
Songwriter: Daniel Rustage.
“I’m leaving today…”, you already know the destination.
So well-known are Sinatra’s lyrics that you immediately imagine where you’re going - it’s New York, the city the whole world knows.
New Orleans was mysterious with jazz, parades, and voodoo, and Los Angeles had glamour and Hollywood, but nothing came remotely close to New York, decades ago, when I thought of living in the US.
It was filthy and crime-ridden, the home of Hill Street Blues and Taxi, with communities from every part of the world in a great melting pot that seemed like the centre of the universe.
In the lead-up to yesterday’s mayoral election, there had been great anticipation that Zohran Mamdani, a genuinely socialist candidate, might win, and the establishment was terrified. The young candidate who spoke so forthrightly was painted as a communist and a terrorist sympathiser. President Trump threatened to withhold federal funding for New York if he were to win the election.
Trump believes he can get his way in elections through bullying and bribery, as we’ve recently seen in Argentina, where the unpopular Javier Milei was returned to power, endorsed by the US president, and came with a $20 billion bailout fund that Argentina wouldn’t have received if it had elected anyone else.
That Argentinian election made me worry about something similar happening here in Aotearoa, with an offer too good to refuse tied to the re-election of Christopher Luxon.
The odds were certainly against Mamdani, who was compared by US media to the hijackers who flew planes into the World Trade Centre. Yet he won, despite Trump’s threats. If those had substance, that effectively makes New York independent, which I imagine many of its citizens would quite like.
Mamdani had some words for Mr Trump in his victory speech, which you can see part of in this clip:
So what has the US establishment, including some Democrats, been so afraid of? What platform has he run on that would generate such scare tactics?
Mamdani’s policies include “freezing rents on rent-stabilised units, building more affordable housing, raising the minimum wage to $30 an hour, making buses free, increasing taxes on the city’s wealthiest residents, and more.”
That resonated in a city where those who do the work can scarcely afford to live there. His grassroots support was built on people like hospitality workers and taxi drivers, some of whom, no doubt, would have found appeal in Trump’s populist rhetoric about bringing jobs back, but who have grown disillusioned by this President’s failure to deliver for average Americans.
Not only is Mamdani a socialist, but he’s also New York’s first Muslim mayor, their first South Asian mayor and, at 34, the youngest city mayor in more than a century.
During the campaign, much was made of Mamdani’s stance on Palestine, with a large Jewish population in New York. Trump said any Jewish voters who opted for Mamdani were “stupid”.
The President posted, “Any Jewish person that votes for Zohran Mamdani, a proven and self-professed JEW HATER, is a stupid person!!!!” Failing to recognise that this was New York and not Tel Aviv, and that many Jewish people do not support genocide.
It’s well worth checking out this speech:
It is inspiring to see the US elect a leader who stands for the people and who refuses to get caught up in the absurd games being played by others.
Unfortunately, it was quite a contrast to what we see here, and I was disgusted to see our government looking to crack down on those doing it hardest in our city centres.
On Tuesday, Chris Hipkins asked the PM, “Is the Government considering a law change to ban homeless people from central business districts; if so, why?”
He asked three times, with Luxon refusing to provide details before saying, “There have been no Cabinet decisions or discussion on that topic.”
Which, based on the news released since, looks awfully like it was a lie. Not that Gerry Brownlee would entertain accusations of dishonesty even if it were happening right before his eyes.
Here’s a sample of the Hansard:
Rt Hon Christopher Luxon: I’m quite comfortable I’ve answered one of those legs of those two legs in that question.
Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: Is the Government considering a law change to ban homeless people from central business districts?
Rt Hon Christopher Luxon: There have been no Cabinet decisions or discussion on that topic.
Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: Has the Cabinet discussed a law change to ban homeless people from central business districts?
Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: In answer to the answer I just gave the member for his last question: no.
Did you, though, Christopher? Some on your team failed to get the memo.
From Stuff:
Police Minister Mark Mitchell and Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith confirmed work was underway to empower police - or potentially other law enforcement agents - to move on rough sleepers and beggars.
Are they just doing it by osmosis, Mr Luxon? The truth is that National Party MPs want to ban begging and rough sleeping in our city centres.
What a grand strategy, first they remove people from emergency housing, leaving them homeless and then when they decide that turning a blind eye to those sleeping rough is insufficient, they want them removed from sight.
Ministers Goldsmith and Mitchell are working on draft legislation, despite the PM’s claims.
Green Party co-leader and MP for Auckland Central, Chlöe Swarbrick, said:
“They have intentionally chosen to make more people homeless. We are left with a situation where many of my constituents in the city centre, and particularly a number of city centre businesses, have noticed that fact.
Where are we moving these people to? My experience, as the local MP in Auckland Central over the last five years, where police have been brought in to move people along is that it doesn’t actually resolve the problem. It merely moves the problem along to another place and pops up in another part of the city.”
We need politicians who speak authentically and who are driven by helping all our people. Maybe for you, that means Chris Hipkins. If it does, then full power to you; he’s a good man.
To me, that person, our Mamdani, is Chlöe Swarbrick. I’m not here to try to change your vote, but when she speaks, Turn The Volume Up; you might find it quite inspiring, and we could all use a bit of that right now.
We have good people, Chippy and Chlöe, so many others, ready to run things in the interests of all our people, and we’re bloody lucky to have them. Plenty of elections have few good options, and we have some great ones.
Have a good Thursday, folks.
Ngā mihi,
Nick.
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To end today, here’s Turn The Volume Up by Rustage:
Pretty much standard - ban the effect - forget the cause! Standard operating procedure. Not enough hospital beds - ban the patients - ban health issues - ban crime - ban Left politics...
Are our PM's following the USA or are they following NZ?
As always, when Trump The Destroyer speaks or types, he is confessing and exposing his weakness. “President Trump threatened to withhold federal funding for New York if he were to win the election.” Indeed he did, incessantly. Good fascist that he is.
The truth is in the U.S., that New York sends net/net more money to the federal coffers than it gets back from the federales. By dar. If “deep blue” states on each coast just said, “fuck off Uncle Sam, we’ll keep our dollars within our own states, thank you-no thanks,” the federal government would dry-up and blow away…