"Zohran Mamdani, the socialist dreamer. Mamdani, the antisemite hiding behind 'genocide' and 'Free Palestine!' slogans shouted through bullhorns. Mamdani, the guy with absolutely zero experience running a daycare or a barber shop, never mind a city of eight and a half million souls."
As someone living through something like this in Chicago with Brandon Johnson, it's simultaneously better and worse than you'd expect. There's a lot of learning to be had on the job, and City Councils are great reality checks. If the choice were just between him and Cuomo, I'd still pull the lever for Mamdani. (We have enough sex pests in power.)
That said, were I a New York City voter tomorrow, I'd happily pull the lever for Curtis Sliwa. His recent interview with Nate Friedman made me a big fan, and he OOZES NYC from his pores:
De Blasio may be an apt comparison - and it's probably good to remember all the doom that was said would accompany his election while things basically didn't change at all. My money is on his being a typical NYC mayor - probably not getting a lot done and that being the end of his political career.
Very little changed under DeBlasio - just an extra $ billion or two wasted when NYC had plenty of money. Mamdani might manage to waste even more and make the money sources seriously consider leaving.
We'll see - but even de Blasio was said to scare off money sources and that didn't happen. I doubt it will happen under Mamdani too - and if he really does make it easier to build then that will expand the tax base too.
If NYC weren't such an important financial center, I would not care if Mamdani is mayor. But given today's communications and computing systems, decentralization would be relatively painless except for the snobs who would rather starve than live in Dallas, Wichita, Nashville, Charlotte, Atlanta or Jacksonville.
I never heard the name before. I did recognize the face but do not recall where I've seen it. It certainly wasn't in "My Dinner with Andre". I don't believe I would have gotten that far in watching the movie. I generally like action movies, but "Cat Ballou" was good.
I can agree with most of the comments above, but I would like to point out that the Jew's own Bible, in the story of Joseph, is very clear that being or claiming to be the Father's favorite son will create bad feelings among the other children. Claiming to be God's Chosen People to non-Jews is at least one source, and perhaps the initiating source, of enmity against Jews. The claim and the chutzpah that it inspires in some members of the tribe is, in my humble opinion, a principal source of anti-Jewish sentiment.
Lizzie - your interpretation of Genesis chapters 37-50 is insightful, but incomplete. You're correct about the bad feelings, however, reading on you see that this was God's plan, and though Joseph suffered, his devotion to God and his brothers was rewarded. The key verses in the story are Genesis 45:4-7:
4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. 6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
This is a foreshadow of Yeshua, who suffered, was cut off from His people, but was sent ahead by the Father to preserve a great deliverance for the whole world, both Jews and Gentiles.
The Apostle Paul, a Jew and, as Saul, a Pharisee, trained under Rabbi Gamaliel, wrote in Romans 11:11-16:
11 Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. 12 But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring!
13 I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I take pride in my ministry 14 in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. 15 For if their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? 16 If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.
The Jews are indeed God's chosen people, and not for bragging rights. Jews hardly have a right to brag for their disobedience to God, yet they are blessed by the One toward whom they harden their hearts. Is this for their punishment? No, it is for the salvation of the world.
God's providence can bring a good outcome from bad behavior, but acting on jealousy is still bad behavior. And Joseph's forgiveness is good behavior even without the providential outcome.
I disagree with your belief that Allah and the God of Israel are not the same. God may have made a covenant with Isaac, but he did not forsake Ishmael.
One could make the argument that the Christian god and the god of Israel are not the same since the Christian god is a triune god while in judaism god is one and indivisible...not a trinity. Christians believe god has been and always will be triune. Based on that, the God of Israel and the God of Islam are one and the same as they both are monotheistic and it is the christian God who is not real.
The bottom line is Christians, Muslims, and Jews all believe in the same God, because the root of those religions is in Abraham, but they all believe that their religion contains the full and final revelation of the same God...one unifier and yet a divider of cosmic proportions.
Additionally, you write, "If the god of Islam is Allah, all powerful and able to condemn souls or elevate them to paradise, and Allah says the land where Israel sits is the property of Allah’s people, then Allah should be able do the “river to the sea” thing without a whole lot of help.
Why hasn’t Allah done it?"
Oh my goodness, Steve. I am in disbelief that you would write that. There are millions of scenarios where we all could ask the same of the Christian god who is purported to be omniscient, omnipresent, and OMNIPOTENT. Where is he?????
The fact that God didn't forsake Ishmael has zero to do with the rise of Mohammad and Islam. The concept of "Allah" as the god of Islam versus "Allah" as the Arabic word for the Christian God is far removed from the religious doctrines and dogma surrounding each of those. Islam was founded on its own documents, which were said to have been given to Mohammad in the year 610, when Christianity was already a mature and well documented religious organization. Islam's main method of growth was conquest. Its governing principle was (is) enslavement of non-Muslims, or payment of a tax to the Islamic ruling government. All those born into an Islamic family are automatically considered Muslims, and the penalty for blasphemy and heresy (converting out the faith) is death. The "Allah" of the Quran, though said to be the true god of Abraham, is not, in practice, dogma, or holy books. I am not a scholar in this, but I am friends with a man who has an Oxford Ph.D. in Islamic studies. I can ask him (though he would not give a direct answer with good reason).
The Christian God, the trinity, and the Jewish God of Abraham are the same God. The Old Testament is filled with references to the Messiah, and the Son. From the beginning of Genesis, the Holy Spirit of God is referenced as a separate force, a person of the Godhead. The Hebrew word "Elohim," meaning God, is a plural noun. The concept of the Trinity is very Jewish, though unfamiliar to Jews because Christians have made it an impenetrable Gordian knot of dogma. The very scholars who informed Herod (not a religious man) of the Messiah's impending birth were informed by the Old Testament, the writings of the prophets. There are over 600 individual prophecies of Yeshua's birth, the place, the time, and the divinity of Christ, that are fulfilled in the Messiah's lifetime. The concept of the Messiah is completely Jewish.
The God of the Torah *is* the God of the Gospels and the New Covenant. The "Allah" of Islam is not. (There *is* an "Allah" of Christian Arabs and He is God, just in another language, let's not get hung on in confusion.) So, yes, if the "Allah" of Islam is omnipotent, then he needs no help giving that land to whomever he pleases.
You ask where the Christian God is? He is very much here. Without Him, there would be no modern Israel. The Jews would have faded into obscurity like the Canaanites, Etruscan religious practice, practitioners of Atenism, or Zoroastrians. All that would remain are stories and some ancient texts. Instead, Hebrew revived from a mostly dead language to a modern one spoken more than Latin. Israel is a thriving democracy with technology and the military ability for self-defense unmatched in the world (outside the U.S.). In 1973, Israel was hours away from destruction. Only multiple miracles (Google them) inexplicably saved Israel. Time after time, God intervened, answered by fire, to preserve Israel and the Jews.
God's promise to Abraham through Sarai's handmaiden Hagar (Ishmael's mother) is fulfilled. There are nearly 500 million Arabs, descendants of Ishmael, in the world, versus about 15 million Jews. Yet the Jews control Israel, and it is more definitive each passing day that this will not change. According to both the Old and New Testaments (which operate as a single story), it will never fail until the return of Yeshua and the fulfillment of the full Messianic promise. God is very much here. Ask Him to show you.
Elohim can be both plural or singular - it depends on the context. The Trinity is not Jewish, it's solely a Christian thing - as is making the prophecies about the Messiah being anything other than a descendant of King David.
Pretty sure that Jews themselves are responsible for the continuation of Judaism and the Hebrew language without Christians. If anything, there'd likely be more Jews in the world.
"Zohran Mamdani, the socialist dreamer. Mamdani, the antisemite hiding behind 'genocide' and 'Free Palestine!' slogans shouted through bullhorns. Mamdani, the guy with absolutely zero experience running a daycare or a barber shop, never mind a city of eight and a half million souls."
As someone living through something like this in Chicago with Brandon Johnson, it's simultaneously better and worse than you'd expect. There's a lot of learning to be had on the job, and City Councils are great reality checks. If the choice were just between him and Cuomo, I'd still pull the lever for Mamdani. (We have enough sex pests in power.)
That said, were I a New York City voter tomorrow, I'd happily pull the lever for Curtis Sliwa. His recent interview with Nate Friedman made me a big fan, and he OOZES NYC from his pores:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHO1hm2iyF0
Sliwa would have a chance if it wasn't for Cuomo. Mamdani might just win with under 50%.
Bill Ackman (and his rich pals) are going to manifest Zohran into the Mayor's office.
https://fortune.com/2025/10/28/billionaires-against-zohran-mamdani-cuomo-donors-bill-ackman-michael-bloomberg-defend-nyc-fix-the-city/
De Blasio may be an apt comparison - and it's probably good to remember all the doom that was said would accompany his election while things basically didn't change at all. My money is on his being a typical NYC mayor - probably not getting a lot done and that being the end of his political career.
Very little changed under DeBlasio - just an extra $ billion or two wasted when NYC had plenty of money. Mamdani might manage to waste even more and make the money sources seriously consider leaving.
We'll see - but even de Blasio was said to scare off money sources and that didn't happen. I doubt it will happen under Mamdani too - and if he really does make it easier to build then that will expand the tax base too.
Well, I learned who Wallace Shawn is.
If NYC weren't such an important financial center, I would not care if Mamdani is mayor. But given today's communications and computing systems, decentralization would be relatively painless except for the snobs who would rather starve than live in Dallas, Wichita, Nashville, Charlotte, Atlanta or Jacksonville.
You didn't know who Wallace Shawn was?
INCONCEIVABLE!
;-)
I'd be very curious to read The Curtis Review of "My Dinner with Andre".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8v_XqFO8Bc
I never heard the name before. I did recognize the face but do not recall where I've seen it. It certainly wasn't in "My Dinner with Andre". I don't believe I would have gotten that far in watching the movie. I generally like action movies, but "Cat Ballou" was good.
I can agree with most of the comments above, but I would like to point out that the Jew's own Bible, in the story of Joseph, is very clear that being or claiming to be the Father's favorite son will create bad feelings among the other children. Claiming to be God's Chosen People to non-Jews is at least one source, and perhaps the initiating source, of enmity against Jews. The claim and the chutzpah that it inspires in some members of the tribe is, in my humble opinion, a principal source of anti-Jewish sentiment.
Lizzie - your interpretation of Genesis chapters 37-50 is insightful, but incomplete. You're correct about the bad feelings, however, reading on you see that this was God's plan, and though Joseph suffered, his devotion to God and his brothers was rewarded. The key verses in the story are Genesis 45:4-7:
4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. 6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
This is a foreshadow of Yeshua, who suffered, was cut off from His people, but was sent ahead by the Father to preserve a great deliverance for the whole world, both Jews and Gentiles.
The Apostle Paul, a Jew and, as Saul, a Pharisee, trained under Rabbi Gamaliel, wrote in Romans 11:11-16:
11 Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. 12 But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring!
13 I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I take pride in my ministry 14 in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. 15 For if their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? 16 If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.
The Jews are indeed God's chosen people, and not for bragging rights. Jews hardly have a right to brag for their disobedience to God, yet they are blessed by the One toward whom they harden their hearts. Is this for their punishment? No, it is for the salvation of the world.
God's providence can bring a good outcome from bad behavior, but acting on jealousy is still bad behavior. And Joseph's forgiveness is good behavior even without the providential outcome.
I disagree with your belief that Allah and the God of Israel are not the same. God may have made a covenant with Isaac, but he did not forsake Ishmael.
One could make the argument that the Christian god and the god of Israel are not the same since the Christian god is a triune god while in judaism god is one and indivisible...not a trinity. Christians believe god has been and always will be triune. Based on that, the God of Israel and the God of Islam are one and the same as they both are monotheistic and it is the christian God who is not real.
The bottom line is Christians, Muslims, and Jews all believe in the same God, because the root of those religions is in Abraham, but they all believe that their religion contains the full and final revelation of the same God...one unifier and yet a divider of cosmic proportions.
Additionally, you write, "If the god of Islam is Allah, all powerful and able to condemn souls or elevate them to paradise, and Allah says the land where Israel sits is the property of Allah’s people, then Allah should be able do the “river to the sea” thing without a whole lot of help.
Why hasn’t Allah done it?"
Oh my goodness, Steve. I am in disbelief that you would write that. There are millions of scenarios where we all could ask the same of the Christian god who is purported to be omniscient, omnipresent, and OMNIPOTENT. Where is he?????
You can disagree, but you'd be wrong.
The fact that God didn't forsake Ishmael has zero to do with the rise of Mohammad and Islam. The concept of "Allah" as the god of Islam versus "Allah" as the Arabic word for the Christian God is far removed from the religious doctrines and dogma surrounding each of those. Islam was founded on its own documents, which were said to have been given to Mohammad in the year 610, when Christianity was already a mature and well documented religious organization. Islam's main method of growth was conquest. Its governing principle was (is) enslavement of non-Muslims, or payment of a tax to the Islamic ruling government. All those born into an Islamic family are automatically considered Muslims, and the penalty for blasphemy and heresy (converting out the faith) is death. The "Allah" of the Quran, though said to be the true god of Abraham, is not, in practice, dogma, or holy books. I am not a scholar in this, but I am friends with a man who has an Oxford Ph.D. in Islamic studies. I can ask him (though he would not give a direct answer with good reason).
The Christian God, the trinity, and the Jewish God of Abraham are the same God. The Old Testament is filled with references to the Messiah, and the Son. From the beginning of Genesis, the Holy Spirit of God is referenced as a separate force, a person of the Godhead. The Hebrew word "Elohim," meaning God, is a plural noun. The concept of the Trinity is very Jewish, though unfamiliar to Jews because Christians have made it an impenetrable Gordian knot of dogma. The very scholars who informed Herod (not a religious man) of the Messiah's impending birth were informed by the Old Testament, the writings of the prophets. There are over 600 individual prophecies of Yeshua's birth, the place, the time, and the divinity of Christ, that are fulfilled in the Messiah's lifetime. The concept of the Messiah is completely Jewish.
The God of the Torah *is* the God of the Gospels and the New Covenant. The "Allah" of Islam is not. (There *is* an "Allah" of Christian Arabs and He is God, just in another language, let's not get hung on in confusion.) So, yes, if the "Allah" of Islam is omnipotent, then he needs no help giving that land to whomever he pleases.
You ask where the Christian God is? He is very much here. Without Him, there would be no modern Israel. The Jews would have faded into obscurity like the Canaanites, Etruscan religious practice, practitioners of Atenism, or Zoroastrians. All that would remain are stories and some ancient texts. Instead, Hebrew revived from a mostly dead language to a modern one spoken more than Latin. Israel is a thriving democracy with technology and the military ability for self-defense unmatched in the world (outside the U.S.). In 1973, Israel was hours away from destruction. Only multiple miracles (Google them) inexplicably saved Israel. Time after time, God intervened, answered by fire, to preserve Israel and the Jews.
God's promise to Abraham through Sarai's handmaiden Hagar (Ishmael's mother) is fulfilled. There are nearly 500 million Arabs, descendants of Ishmael, in the world, versus about 15 million Jews. Yet the Jews control Israel, and it is more definitive each passing day that this will not change. According to both the Old and New Testaments (which operate as a single story), it will never fail until the return of Yeshua and the fulfillment of the full Messianic promise. God is very much here. Ask Him to show you.
Elohim can be both plural or singular - it depends on the context. The Trinity is not Jewish, it's solely a Christian thing - as is making the prophecies about the Messiah being anything other than a descendant of King David.
Pretty sure that Jews themselves are responsible for the continuation of Judaism and the Hebrew language without Christians. If anything, there'd likely be more Jews in the world.