Mr. Mayor, do you ever do any governing?
asserted
you → do → governing
That’s the question of the week after the latest barrage of promotional videos from Gracie Mansion nepo baby Zohran Mamdani, including one starring fellow socialist Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
asserted
That → ’ → Sanchez
“Being a leftist means taking big shots,” Sanchez — currently beset by a government-wide corruption scandal and severe domestic unrest — intones in a clip released Saturday.
asserted
Sanchez → mean → clip
“And making them,” Mamdani answers.
asserted
Mamdani → make → them
There follows a heavily edited montage of Zo and Pedro playing trash basketball with a City Hall wastepaper bin, sinking shot after impressive shot.
asserted
Zo → follow → shot
A cynic might suspect this isn’t quite how the game played out.
uncertain
game → suspect → ?
The famously unathletic Mamdani struggled to bench-press a measly 135 pounds during a misguided campaign stunt, requiring help from a stronger spotter.
Yet the question remains: Which shots, big or small, has he made?
asserted
he → struggle → shots
He was forced to beat a humiliating retreat on that after someone let him know the United States is not a party to the Rome Statute and doesn’t recognize the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction.
asserted
States → force → jurisdiction
So on Thursday, instead of protesting or somehow trying to make good on his big talk when Netanyahu came to town for the UN General Assembly (and personally called him out), Mamdani busied himself by making a video in which he “planted an olive tree at Gracie Mansion.”
asserted
he → protest → Mansion
Even more hilariously, he didn’t do any actual planting — just watched as others worked.
asserted
others → do → planting
On Sunday, his official X account pushed out another vid of Mamdani running around City Hall to somehow get people excited about registering to vote.
asserted
people → push → Hall
Thursday saw a high-production-value clip announcing a city-sponsored giveaway of 70,000 Metropolitan Opera tickets.
asserted
Thursday → see → tickets
The day before, he “split the G [train]” with Taoiseach of Ireland Micheál Martin, in a stunt that made a winking reference to a Guinness-based drinking game.
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that → split → game
There’s nothing inherently wrong with mayors engaging in such goofy soft-power shenanigans — if they’re actually making life better for the citizens they serve.
asserted
they → ’ → citizens
But nine months in, this emphasis on trivialities at the expense of actually governing seems to be the dominant theme of Mamdani’s mayoralty.
asserted
emphasis → govern → mayoralty
Or his unsettling hype video outside hedge-fund titan Ken Griffin’s apartment to celebrate his pied-a-terre tax rollout (a rollout he then botched).
asserted
he → celebrate → rollout
And that’s to say nothing of the army of influencers his administration has shadily recruited to pump out pro-Zo content, or the tens of millions in taxpayer dollars he’s diverted to his personal propaganda shop, the Office of Mass Engagement.
Given the state of the city, it’s very much a misalignment of priorities.
asserted
it → say → priorities
Repeat violent offenders roam the subways at will, thanks to the police-shackling policies Mamdani and his DSA allies support.
asserted
Mamdani → roam → policies
Those same policies are encouraging Third World-style homeless encampments to spring up from NYU to the Intrepid.
asserted
encampments → encourage → Intrepid
The city’s public schools continue to fail black and Latino kids, hard.
asserted
schools → continue → kids
The constant self-promotion raises another question: Who are all these videos for?
Not the people getting pushed down the subway stairs by deranged thugs.
Not the kids left illiterate and innumerate by our dysfunctional schools.
asserted
videos → raise → schools
Not the young families contemplating out-of-state flight due to all of the above, plus horrific affordability issues: Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn ranked 137th, 147th and 148th out of 150 in a recent national rent-affordability dataset.
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Manhattan → contemplate → dataset
No: This content is for Mamdani’s privileged base, insulated from the results of his incompetence.
asserted
content → insulate → incompetence
Indeed, “content” seems to be about the only thing Mamdani is actually any good at.
asserted
Mamdani → seem → ?
His city-owned grocery stores look more and more like a joke, encumbered by lawsuits and community opposition and crippled by absurdly high costs.
asserted
stores → own → costs
He promised to hand over policing duties to the alarmingly named Department of Community Safety, but delivered only an “office” with a few sinecures for allies.
asserted
He → promise → allies
No free buses in sight, and the crucial Strategic Response Unit of the NYPD is still operating, despite all Mamdani’s big talk of disbanding it.
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Unit → operate → it
He got snubbed at a soldier’s funeral in the heart of a Queens district he carried and was literally booed off the stage at a Staten Island event for the NYPD.
asserted
he → snub → NYPD
His video with Sanchez unintentionally reveals the truth: My ideas are trash!
asserted
ideas → reveal → truth
Also, I can’t execute on them and need help to hide that fact.
asserted
I → execute → fact
It’s fortunate for us all that Mamdani can’t fully live up to his promised radicalism — though even the baby steps he’s taken so far are horrific.
asserted
he → ’ → radicalism
The real tragedy is that, other than his seal-clapping base, the New Yorkers he promised to fight for get nothing.
asserted
he → clap → nothing
Nothing beyond cringe, that is.
asserted
that → cringe → cringe
The Aporia
