Best Of

Clearly a good night for the Democrats, winning the big 3 races of the NJ and Virginia governors races and the NYC Mayoralty..

Their margins of victory however in the 3 told its own story. Landslide victories for the Democrat candidate in NJ, beating the Republican candidate by a 13% margin compared to the 6% margin Harris beat Trump by in NJ last year and in Virginia, where the Democrat candidate won by a 15% margin over the GOP candidate compared to the 6% margin Harris also beat Trump by in that state. Both those results will be especially pleasing for the Dems as they show a clear swing away from Trump and the GOP.

For all the story of Mamdani's NYC Mayoral win though he won with only 50.4% of the vote against the 41.6% for Trump backed Independent Cuomo and 7% for GOP candidate Silwa, That is significantly less for the official Democratic candidate than the 68% Harris won in New York city against Trump last year. Suggesting that if democratic socialism can barely scrape a majority even in deep blue NYC then socialism is certainly not the path back to victory for the Democrats in the midterms next year or the 2028 White House. Some comfort there for Trump and Vance and the GOP if Mamdani's tax rises send the wealthy and businesses fleeing Manhattan and wider New York city and they can tar other Democrats with the same brush. As Corbyn and Melenchon found even if a socialist can win the biggest city in the nation it certainly does not mean a socialist will be able to win suburban, small town and rural parts of the nation

The Democrats aren't going to run socialists in suburban, small town and rural districts, of course.
It appears (to me, at least) that they're remembering that a two party system requires a party to be a broad coalition to have the best chance of winning.
The Republicans under Trump have chosen the opposite extreme to broad coalition, and without their subverting the entire electoral process, that is not going to win them either the midterms or the next presidential election.

Are Mandami's positions very far left? Where does he sit relative to say Zak Polanski or Neil Kinnock?

Are there not lots of Trumpists running around in circles telling the world that Keir Starmer is a socialist and Sadiq Khan is an Islamist? For Mandami, we have Trump's own yammerings about Mandami the Communist Jew Hater.

The issue there is not that Mandami is what they say, but that the logic of their own ideological positions means they have defined Islam as their enemy - and need to stick the label on anything that moves to justify themselves. The MAGA problem is overwhelmingly in their own heads.

Yes he’s a proper commie.

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/06/25/zohran-mamdani-platform-policies-issues/84350898007/

He’s all up for state-owned grocery stores, rent controls, $30 minimum wage, wealth taxes, free city buses, sanctuary city, free gender surgery, non-co-operation with federal police etc. etc.

Whatever else that platform is, it isn't Communism. More like left wing Populism.

We saw lots of commentary both here and in the wider media on the lessons that the Dems needed to learn from the 2024 elections (basically shift right and anti-immigrant).

What lessons do you thing the Republicans need to learn from the pasting in the mid-mid-terms? Presumably to shift left and do something about unaffordable rents and poverty pay?

I see only tumbleweed....

Clearly a good night for the Democrats, winning the big 3 races of the NJ and Virginia governors races and the NYC Mayoralty..

Their margins of victory however in the 3 told its own story. Landslide victories for the Democrat candidate in NJ, beating the Republican candidate by a 13% margin compared to the 6% margin Harris beat Trump by in NJ last year and in Virginia, where the Democrat candidate won by a 15% margin over the GOP candidate compared to the 6% margin Harris also beat Trump by in that state. Both those results will be especially pleasing for the Dems as they show a clear swing away from Trump and the GOP.

For all the story of Mamdani's NYC Mayoral win though he won with only 50.4% of the vote against the 41.6% for Trump backed Independent Cuomo and 7% for GOP candidate Silwa, That is significantly less for the official Democratic candidate than the 68% Harris won in New York city against Trump last year. Suggesting that if democratic socialism can barely scrape a majority even in deep blue NYC then socialism is certainly not the path back to victory for the Democrats in the midterms next year or the 2028 White House. Some comfort there for Trump and Vance and the GOP if Mamdani's tax rises send the wealthy and businesses fleeing Manhattan and wider New York city and they can tar other Democrats with the same brush. As Corbyn and Melenchon found even if a socialist can win the biggest city in the nation it certainly does not mean a socialist will be able to win suburban, small town and rural parts of the nation

The Democrats aren't going to run socialists in suburban, small town and rural districts, of course.
It appears (to me, at least) that they're remembering that a two party system requires a party to be a broad coalition to have the best chance of winning.
The Republicans under Trump have chosen the opposite extreme to broad coalition, and without their subverting the entire electoral process, that is not going to win them either the midterms or the next presidential election.

Are Mandami's positions very far left? Where does he sit relative to say Zak Polanski or Neil Kinnock?

Are there not lots of Trumpists running around in circles telling the world that Keir Starmer is a socialist and Sadiq Khan is an Islamist? For Mandami, we have Trump's own yammerings about Mandami the Communist Jew Hater.

The issue there is not that Mandami is what they say, but that the logic of their own ideological positions means they have defined Islam as their enemy - and need to stick the label on anything that moves to justify themselves. The MAGA problem is overwhelmingly in their own heads.

Yes he’s a proper commie.

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/06/25/zohran-mamdani-platform-policies-issues/84350898007/

He’s all up for state-owned grocery stores, rent controls, $30 minimum wage, wealth taxes, free city buses, sanctuary city, free gender surgery, non-co-operation with federal police etc. etc.

Most of those exist in Europe, or have been considered in Europe. And Europe is not communist.

Are there any significant number of grocery stores in New York. Is this just meeting a basic need - a kind of paid food bank? There's a video somewhere of Evan Edinger trying to buy an apple in NY, and finding it difficult.

Rent controls have been a thing in NY since the 1920s, and are the dominant case study as to why they do not work.

That minimum wage is high, but in place across most of Europe. I don't see him doing $30.

Wealth taxes are just one option, again in use in various places in Europe.

Free city buses are a small change from flat rate travel cards (eg London). NY already has a 7-day one costing $5 a day for bus and subway.

Sanctuary city, free gender surgery, non-co-operation with federal police. I don't see these as being "communist".

We'll see.

Even in Europe, this is mostly far left stuff.

The one thing that economists agree on, whether right or left, is that rent controls are a terrible idea.

OT: the cause of the MD-11 crash yesterday may be looking a bit clearer as more images and video become available.

My initial thought of an unusually violent uncontained engine failure has been quashed by pictures clearly showing the core of the #1 (left) engine lying beside the runway. This means the engine completely departed the aircraft during the take-off run. The big fire on the plane was not a burning engine, but raw fuel spilling from the wing tanks and igniting, which explains the large fireball.

I've never seen any failure mode of a large modern turbo-fan engine which could cause it to totally rip off the wing. So we're likely looking at structural failure or improper maintenance.

The MD-11 is an updated DC-10, and a DC-10 suffered a similar crash in 1979. The #1 engine's mounting had been damaged by negligent maintenance work and the engine tore off the wing during take off, severely damaging the hydraulic systems and causing the loss of the aircraft. A picture of the DC-10 taken seconds before the crash shows fuel spraying out of the damaged wing.

The engine mounts on the DC-10 and MD-11 use a triangular arrangement of flange bolts, which can act like a hinge if the rear bolt breaks while the engine is producing thrust, causing the engine to flip up over the top of the wing and tear itself loose. It looks plausible this is what happened to the MD-11.

I feel deeply sorry for the flight crew. As soon as that engine was lost there was no possible way of recovering the aircraft.

I understand what @Casino_Royale wrote. There IS a lot of Trump-bashing on here. The problem is that our source is Trump.

This is not about partisan politics, left vs right, this perspective vs that perspective. We all have opinions and I am the first to volunteer that mine isn't always consistent and is frequently judged by myself to have been in error. Mea Culpa and all that.

What this is about is America - the law, the constitution, its institutions. Trump is openly, actively, currently undermining all of them. Flouting them. Violating them. Its undeniable because its happening in front of us,

CR wants a rational analysis. I think we're having one about something wholly irrational. Its rational to look at the government shutdown, the official statements and videos from the White House, the actions of Congress and to summarise that based on the American constitution, its institutions and political system, what is happening is wholly irrational.

Yesterday we had "mid-midterm" elections. The Republicans got routed. That's the rational bit. The irrational bit is what happens afterwards in the context of all that has already been done and all that the same people say they will do next.

So I feel for Casino. We all want rationality.

The problem isn't the Trump bashing but rather the pompom waving for the Dems.

Much of the opinion here over the last few years was that the Dems are noble, honest, competent people who were pursuing the best way to bring Trump to justice, who had not driven centrists out of their party and who never gerrymander or rig elections and were led by a man who was not in deep mental decline and who would not issue a presidential pardon to his son who was not a criminal in any case.

No one’s saying the Dems are whiter than white . But the party who supported a corrupt morally bankrupt man are the GOP . The GOP are the ones trying to suppress votes in urban areas who have refused to support voter legislation at the federal level . This attempt at false equivalence ignores the reality . The Dems have decided to stop trying to be the honourable folk and have decided to fight fire with fire . In an ideal world there would be no gerrymandering in the US . The Dems attempted to pass legislation to level the playing field nationwide . The GOP voted against . California is simply reacting to Texas or do you expect them to sit there and play the honourable card whilst the GOP embark on stealing the mid-terms ?

The Democrats have a long record of corruption and cheating in elections.

It’s just that Trump, and those around him, are worse than the Democrats are.

Clearly a good night for the Democrats, winning the big 3 races of the NJ and Virginia governors races and the NYC Mayoralty..

Their margins of victory however in the 3 told its own story. Landslide victories for the Democrat candidate in NJ, beating the Republican candidate by a 13% margin compared to the 6% margin Harris beat Trump by in NJ last year and in Virginia, where the Democrat candidate won by a 15% margin over the GOP candidate compared to the 6% margin Harris also beat Trump by in that state. Both those results will be especially pleasing for the Dems as they show a clear swing away from Trump and the GOP.

For all the story of Mamdani's NYC Mayoral win though he won with only 50.4% of the vote against the 41.6% for Trump backed Independent Cuomo and 7% for GOP candidate Silwa, That is significantly less for the official Democratic candidate than the 68% Harris won in New York city against Trump last year. Suggesting that if democratic socialism can barely scrape a majority even in deep blue NYC then socialism is certainly not the path back to victory for the Democrats in the midterms next year or the 2028 White House. Some comfort there for Trump and Vance and the GOP if Mamdani's tax rises send the wealthy and businesses fleeing Manhattan and wider New York city and they can tar other Democrats with the same brush. As Corbyn and Melenchon found even if a socialist can win the biggest city in the nation it certainly does not mean a socialist will be able to win suburban, small town and rural parts of the nation

Cuomo isn't an Independent, he was a loser in the Democratic primary just a few moths ago.

So NYC was 90% Dem, not 50.4%, albeit with tactical voting for Cuomo.

Cuomo won’t have got many Democrat votes. He ran as MAGA (are allegations of extreme personal sleeze mandatory for MAGA?)

New York has been won by moderate Republicans (remember them) a number of times. But it also gets moderate Democrat Mayors - because they need the centre to win.

And there has always been a serious right wing vote in NY.

Last nights result is unusual - the anti-Trump factor got a more left wing Democrat across the line, than usual.

Yes. The other factor is personal record. If Mamdani is successful in implementing half his manifesto and blaming the obstacles in the other half on State and Washington goivernment - two big ifs - then he should be comfortable for re-election and perhaps more.

On PB we tend to think that most people think on a left-right axis, but actually mostly people don't think much about politics, and when they do it's based largely on an assessment of whether X is successful and makes life a bit better. That's how Trump won, come to that.

I understand what @Casino_Royale wrote. There IS a lot of Trump-bashing on here. The problem is that our source is Trump.

This is not about partisan politics, left vs right, this perspective vs that perspective. We all have opinions and I am the first to volunteer that mine isn't always consistent and is frequently judged by myself to have been in error. Mea Culpa and all that.

What this is about is America - the law, the constitution, its institutions. Trump is openly, actively, currently undermining all of them. Flouting them. Violating them. Its undeniable because its happening in front of us,

CR wants a rational analysis. I think we're having one about something wholly irrational. Its rational to look at the government shutdown, the official statements and videos from the White House, the actions of Congress and to summarise that based on the American constitution, its institutions and political system, what is happening is wholly irrational.

Yesterday we had "mid-midterm" elections. The Republicans got routed. That's the rational bit. The irrational bit is what happens afterwards in the context of all that has already been done and all that the same people say they will do next.

So I feel for Casino. We all want rationality.

The problem isn't the Trump bashing but rather the pompom waving for the Dems.

Much of the opinion here over the last few years was that the Dems are noble, honest, competent people who were pursuing the best way to bring Trump to justice, who had not driven centrists out of their party and who never gerrymander or rig elections and were led by a man who was not in deep mental decline and who would not issue a presidential pardon to his son who was not a criminal in any case.

No one’s saying the Dems are whiter than white . But the party who supported a corrupt morally bankrupt man are the GOP . The GOP are the ones trying to suppress votes in urban areas who have refused to support voter legislation at the federal level . This attempt at false equivalence ignores the reality . The Dems have decided to stop trying to be the honourable folk and have decided to fight fire with fire . In an ideal world there would be no gerrymandering in the US . The Dems attempted to pass legislation to level the playing field nationwide . The GOP voted against . California is simply reacting to Texas or do you expect them to sit there and play the honourable card whilst the GOP embark on stealing the mid-terms ?

No one’s saying the Dems are whiter than white

Followed by application of whitewash.

California gerrymanders, Texas gerrymanders, Texas gerrymanders some more, California gerrymanders some more.

Both sides are so filled with self-righteousness that they would prefer to destroy the country than let the other side win.

The result will be the country is destroyed irrespective of who wins.

California has an independent re-districting commission which had good support from the public . The proposition 50 vote was to suspend that until 2030 as a result of the Texas re-districting . If Texas hadn’t changed their house map California would have not gone ahead with their changes . Again I ask should Dems just sit there and do nothing under some let’s play the martyrs as the GOP steal the mid-terms ?