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Posted on 07/02/2025 4:49:17 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Last week I invited readers to get a good laugh out of New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s plan to avert impending energy disaster by green-lighting one nuclear power plant that optimistically might solve 5% of the problem when it is ready to operate in the 2050s. Now this week brings an even superior farce: A video clip has emerged of our settler-colonialist Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani calling for “seizing the means of production.”
Mamdani’s victory in last week’s Democratic primary has led researchers to dredge up a treasure trove of his old tweets and video clips, each one more ridiculous than the next. An excellent roundup can be found here at Legal Insurrection . Some choice examples include: “VioIence is an artificial construct"; “Under capitalism, housing is a commodity from which landlords & developers extract huge profits while our communities suffer eviction, foreclosure & displacement.”; “We need to dramatically curtail the power & presence of the NYPD.”; and “[A] statue of Columbus remains in Astoria, in defiance of the values of humanity, empathy & justice that we stand for.”
But my favorite is a clip from a speech Mamdani gave at a Democratic Socialists of America conference in 2021. The New York Post today quotes some excerpts from the speech, among them Mamdani’s statements that issues socialists “firmly believe in,” include “boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel” and “the end goal of seizing the means of production.”
“Seizing the means of production” — now there’s a retro concept. The “means of production” was good commie talk back in the 19th century, when Karl Marx and his followers looked around and saw things like steel mills, railroad engine factories, iron foundries, coal mines, textile mills, and other such big facilities to make lots of stuff. It seemed obvious that those facilitie were where the greedy capitalists got their wealth.
But has Mamdani even looked around the New York City of today? What even exists today that you could call a “means of production”?
In New York City today, we produce almost nothing that is tangible. I wonder if Mamdani has noticed that.
In May 2016 I did a big post with lots of research titled “The Devastation Of New York City’s Economy.” The post documented the complete transformation of New York City’s economy from the 1950s to the time of the post, and in particular the almost complete disappearance of manufacturing. As noted in the post, in the aftermath of World War II, New York City’s economy had over 1 million manufacturing jobs, distributed among some 37,000 different companies. Those companies and people made a huge variety of products, most famously women’s clothing, where New York City was completely dominant and supported about 231,000 jobs. By the time of the post in 2016, the total number of manufacturing jobs in New York City in all industries was down to about 80,000. According to the most recent statistics from the New York State Department of Labor, the current number of manufacturing jobs in the City (May 2025) is only 57,700. That’s out of total private-sector employment of some 4,248,300.
Such manufacturing as continues to exist in New York City is reduced to a few specialized niches. For example, there continue to be specialized clothing manufacturers to make things like costumes for Broadway shows and samples for runway fashion shows. Are their sewing machines what Mamdani means by the “means of production”?
In the way of mass production of physical goods for human consumption, almost none of it occurs in New York City. Food? Obviously, we don’t grow that here. Clothing? Almost certainly, nothing in your wardrobe or mine was manufactured in New York City. Housing or other buildings? They are put together on site, but the materials almost all come from elsewhere (structural concrete is one exception). Automobiles? There are no assembly plants in the five boroughs; and if you know of a manufacturer of some kind of parts for the auto industry in New York City, I would like to learn of it.
But aren’t there some kind of “means of production” to make all the wealth that gets generated in the hundreds of big office buildings in Manhattan? I would love to see Mamdani’s plans to seize whatever this may be. When he sends in his shock troops to make the seizures, all he’s going to find are a bunch of laptops no different from what you could get at the Apple store.
How about the investment bankers and traders and hedge funders who make millions of dollars per year dealing in the capital markets? I suppose that their “means of production” mainly consists of the proprietary software that they use in their businesses. The bankers may know how to make big money using this software, but seized and distributed among the masses, it would be almost completely useless. It’s really quite funny to contemplate.
Anyway, these are the levels of ignorance and foolishness that we are dealing with.
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Levels that are hard to comprehend.
“Settler-Colonialist Zohran Mamdani Calls For “Seizing The Means Of Production””
Sounds like he supports the policies of the Biden Women.
This guy is a real nut...The party better figure this out. And they also need to stop Ranked voting.
“According to the most recent statistics from the New York State Department of Labor, the current number of manufacturing jobs in the City (May 2025) is only 57,700. That’s out of total private-sector employment of some 4,248,300.”
Little things. What REALLY COUNTS are the Art Galleries in NY City, they’re the most numerous and best in the world!
“All power to the soviets!”
Too bad we don’t have Joe McCarthy around. Mamdani, Sanders and the rest of the commies would be crapping their pants.
No one can convince me that these Trump frustrated leftist don’t see their vote for Mandami as a swipe at MAGA.
Filthy communist scumbag moves here from Uganda and then immediately wants to turn the USA into that African hell hole.
It’s just more proof that these “migrants” don’t come here to assimilate and become Americans. They come here to conquer and destroy.
FWIW, grinding coffee beans into coffee is a form of manufacturing. Many backing processes too.
Seize the coffee shops and bakeries. More power to the people,!
The latest to announce closure is Domino Sugar. Will be closed by the end of the 2025.
Someone needs to seize his means of production and cut them off.
“the end goal of seizing the means of production.”
He bought into the communist philosophy fully, and hella early in life, only recently realizing that it was time to upgrade his rap and start lying about what he thinks (taqiyya-style).
He must be as surprised as anyone else to find himself so close to ascending to the NYC mayoralty.
He didn’t have time to memory-hole his previously recorded incriminating/inconvenient statements!
Don't hold your breath.
Communists seize what was not stolen. It is an ideology of envy, theft, and power mongering.
He combines the most loathsome features of two of the most loathsome philosophies ever to curse humankind, Islam and communism.
NYC doesn’t make much any more..it all gets trucked in to the city.
ISN’T HAT WHAT IS HAPPENING TO WHITE FARMERS IN SOUTH AFRICA??
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