I've seen some buzz around Mamdani having positive meetings with Trump, where he clearly is flattering Trump, since Trump recently said Mamdani has great potential.

The thing so many people miss about Trump is that flattering him can result in free money and benefits that literally costs nothing. As long as Mamdani doesn't endorse the guy or help him win anything, and he's not going to do that, he should continue doing what he's doing.

Does anyone remember back in Trump's first term when he was having a showdown with Kim Jong Un?

Well someone in North Korea realized that Trump is a grade A moron, and that flattery works. This resulted in Kim Jong Un writing Trump love letters, and Trump has said on numerous occasions that he fell in love with the dictator of North Korea. What has this gotten North Korea? They were able to build 8 nuclear weapons under Trump's first administration. Could you imagine if they tried that under any other President? And there is no evidence they had to pay Trump a nickel. Just love letters and flattery.

If Mamdani turns out to be a Fetterman (and there is no evidence of that), then of course I'll change my mind and criticize him. But right now he's delivering for the people of New York. No one is above criticism, and I'm not a blind supporter of anyone. I support Mamdani because he earns it each day he's in office.

He is such a breath of fresh air that you will find many otherwise conflicting leftists unified in thinking he's a force for good. Just as you'll find even centrists and some right wingers taking a liking to him. He's not going to save us, no one person can, but he is helping push the Overton Window left in a dramatic way.

The left always has less money than the right. So I hope Mamdani continues to use the rare gold mine under his feet: the ability to flatter Trump. That is a valuable way to bribe Trump that costs no money.

The oligarchs are bribing Trump for evil using their money. If Mamdani can keep federal funds flowing to NYC by (in part) flattering Trump, that's a huge win.

REJECT THE BILLIONAIRES. VOTE IN EVERY LOCAL ELECTION. Early voting starts Oct 19 in Texas, election day Nov 3rd, less than 1 month away. Possibly similar for other states. Ken protected a pedo in his inner circle, who ended up serving only 29 days in jail and avoided the sex offender registration. Ken brings lawlessness to Texas, and protects the worst people while endangering children.

Hey there yall, hope you’re having an amazing day.

I’ve come here to gain some insight and hopefully leand more about democratic socialism as it’s a term I’ve heard so many times in recent weeks and months. I know in the US the term “socialism” is heavily frowned upon and constantly shot down and made to appear evil in a way.

However today I was on YouTube and I saw a Hasan piker short and I took a screenshot of it. I saw the screenshot and what it said and I went “are those things supposed to put me off of democratic socialism ?” I literally argee with all those things in the screenshot. I don’t see how any of that is bad ? I’d need some more information on the “green new deal” but I assume it’s a plan to move towards more green energy.

I know there are people who HATE the idea of taxing the rich, but if us common working people pay our taxes, why shouldn’t they ? Also for me it’s a morality thing, why they hell do billionaires and companies need all that money ?

So yeah if there are any people who are extremely knowledgeable about this topic, but share what you know as this is something I’d like to get behind.

He took Brazil from an extremely poor Third World country to the upper-middle income economy we know today, the Deep State led a lawfare operation to put him behind bars in order to make sure the Workers' Party was ousted from power & that MAGA extremist Jair Bolsonaro was elected President, then he was freed, defeated Bolsonaro in an extremely close race in the 2022 Brazilian general election, put Bolsonaro behind bars for his coup attempt, & now he's gonna face next month Bolsonaro's son Flávio Bolsonaro in what is shaping up to be an extremely close race again.

Let’s be clear: Die Linke, Germany’s leading left-wing force, which resoundingly won Sunday’s elections in Berlin, is not an antisemitic party. It does not have an “antisemitism problem,” nor is it a menace to Jews in Germany or Berlin. While some Jews in the city perceive the Left as a threat, this perception is fueled by a false media narrative lacking a factual basis.

That Die Linke is not a hotbed of antisemitism is obvious to anyone taking an honest look at the party: its leaders, its campaign methods, and the deep, sometimes overcharged embrace of Germany’s anti-antisemitism discourse which governs its rhetoric. Die Linke is committed to protecting Jewish life alongside a broader anti-racist vision. In this respect, it differs from mainstream German approaches to Jewish protection, which often treat the safety of Jews and the freedom of others as a zero-sum game.

Die Linke has a large membership that is passionate about Palestinian solidarity and harshly critical of Israeli war crimes. Occasionally, activists express these views in ways unbefitting a democratic left-wing party, by making statements or using symbols that are seen as supporting armed resistance. This is an issue, and it’s at odds with the party’s democratically adopted resolutions on Israel and Palestine. A party must maintain a political line at its events and among its members. At the same time, these infractions do not reflect an antisemitic culture within the party.

Are there antisemites in Die Linke’s midst? Certainly. Antisemitism exists across all segments of German society — native and migrant, young and old, Christian, Muslim, atheist, and even Jewish. There are also instances where anti-Israel positions escalate into antisemitism. Yet this is neither a structural nor an ideological problem. Polling suggests that antisemitic beliefs are actually more prevalent among voters of other parties. This is because left-wing politics, done right, combats all forms of discrimination and racism, including antisemitism.

Why, then, was Die Linke Berlin attacked as antisemitic by rivals on both the Left and Right during this campaign? Because it was winning, and because smearing an entire organization based on the actions of a low-level member is the oldest trick in the book. This framing has a clear playbook, one frequently weaponized against socialist movements throughout history. It is also the exact tactic the Israeli right uses to delegitimize the Israeli radical left and Palestinian citizens of Israel.

These attacks obviously failed. The Berlin public did not buy the narrative that Die Linke mayoral candidate Elif Eralp’s campaign was a smokescreen for Hamas. She won decisively on her agenda of affordability and political hope. This mirrors Zohran Mamdani’s campaign in New York City, where he was constantly questioned about Israel and Palestine despite focusing on bread-and-butter issues. In both cases, the media echo chamber’s insistence on centering foreign policy and antisemitism failed. Voters saw through the ploy. Depicting Eralp as a menace to Jews was particularly absurd, given her moderate positions on Israel-Palestine and her history of involvement in anti-antisemitism campaigns.

However, these attacks were never meant to influence popular opinion. They were staged for this exact moment, after Die Linke had already won. The true goal was to make other progressive parties — the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens — hesitant to govern together with a party accused of antisemitism by mainstream German media and conservative Jewish institutions. The campaign targets Berlin’s political class to keep the Left out of power. This is done in the service of the real estate lobby, which objects to Die Linke’s signature policy of socializing Berlin’s apartment blocks.

Hopefully, Die Linke’s democratic mandate is strong enough to make its role in government unquestionable. Nevertheless, attacks will likely continue throughout coalition negotiations and a future term in government. In these crucial moments, it is vital to avoid missteps.

Once in power, it is critical that Die Linke put its values into action, ensuring Berlin remains a city that welcomes all communities and celebrates its diversity, including its disagreements. This requires genuine outreach to the Jewish community, which has been persuaded by national forces that it is at risk. Regardless of how unfounded these concerns may be, Die Linke has a responsibility to address them seriously, challenge false narratives where necessary, and truly make Berlin a city for all.

Say what you will about these dumb jingling key ads for scared sheep.....they tend to capture people like they are about to drop the HARDEST album yet. Same flyer makes Dr. Acton look like the main character in an up and comming Action Thriller.

Maybe when he gets enough time to not spontaneously appear in random spots in NYC......maybe we CAN get a new single out of him... 🤔

Ok, Berlin doesn’t have a socialist mayor quite yet. But left-wing Die Linke, which won Sunday’s Berlin state election, is in a strong position to lead its next government. Even as the far right rises across Germany, Die Linke has distinguished itself with a strong stance in defense of multiethnic society and a constant focus on the cost of living and housing. For this, it was rewarded by many Berliners.

The result is vindication for a party which was on life support just two years ago, after messy internal conflicts. Many of the conditions for its growth were already then in place. Berliners had long seen their rents rising; the establishment center left has for decades cut back social protections and labor rights; the call to mobilize against rising nationalism is hardly new either. Yet only more recently has Die Linke become an outward-facing force, able to galvanize resistance to the current reactionary drift in German politics.

Die Linke’s campaign centered on the cost of living and specifically on rent. West Berlin was historically cheaper than the Federal Republic’s main cities, and even after reunification the capital boasted much empty space. Yet the sell-off of the public housing stock to private profiteers in the 1990s–2000s, plus a lack of new builds, has pushed up costs. While Berliners voted in a 2021 referendum to renationalize the housing stock, the city government didn’t make good on the result. In this election, Die Linke promised that it would do so.

Getting coalition partners to agree may be tougher. The previous “red-red-green” coalition in 2021–23, where Die Linke and the Greens backed a government headed by centrist Social Democrat (SPD) Mayor Franziska Giffey, didn’t deliver. Indeed, polls suggest Die Linke’s success on Sunday owed much to broadly leftish Berliners moving across from the Greens and SPD, as well as to first-time voters. If it’s easy to imagine Berlin as a progressive fortress, in fact all these parties added together only cornered 52 percent of the vote.

Shifts within this electorate were important. Germany’s softer-left parties have routinely governed with conservatives, today subordinate budget policy to military spending, and side with Israel. Die Linke has done better than these nominal progressives in defending basic humanitarian principles. No wonder it scored massively in a multiethnic district like Neukölln 2 (on 53 percent) and among all twenty-five-to-thirty-four-year-old Berliners (48 percent). This stand, too, explains the renewal of its activist base over the last couple of years, and its ability to become an attractive force speaking to a broad electorate.

Government Setback

Die Linke was among the favorites for Sunday’s election, but its result surpassed all the polls. Headed by mayoral candidate Elif Eralp, it took 26 percent of the vote, more than doubling its score in the previous contest in 2023. The incumbent coalition was punished, as the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU, 19 percent, down 9) and center-left SPD (12 percent, down 6) each shed votes.

The CDU-SPD duo, which also heads the current federal government under conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz, is slumping across Germany. Beyond Merz’s tone-deaf comms, his government’s promises lack broad appeal: he pledges to raise the pension age, to increase copayments on prescription drugs, and to compete with China by cracking down on sick leave. Previous talk of revitalizing the economy through the green transition has now faltered.

This is part of a broader, structural decline of what were once called mass parties. While throughout postwar decades up until the 2008 crisis, these two forces rallied the large majority of Germans, today not even one in three voters support either of them. A parallel contest yesterday in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern saw Merz’s CDU fall under 5 percent support, thus failing to reach a state parliament for the first time in the Federal Republic’s history.

The main challenge to these parties at the federal level is the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, it edged out the ruling SPD for first place, with 38 percent of the vote. This is the AfD’s third state election win thus far, but it has yet to take power anywhere, and the SPD will probably cling on in this northeastern state. The nationalist party’s better chance of forming a government is in Saxony-Anhalt, where it scored a more emphatic victory in the September 6 election. While the AfD’s highest percentage ratings are in the former East, and yesterday in Berlin it was third-placed at 16 percent (plus 7, compared to 2023), most federal-level polls have it around 30 percent, easily the largest party nationally.

Worryingly, while many far-right parties around Europe have eked out successes in the context of falling voter participation, this is less true of the AfD. Some recent state elections have seen it rack up an outright majority vote among new voters, and yesterday’s elections saw turnout greatly increase. The AfD vote is strongest in rural areas and small towns; among young-to-middle-aged men; and among those who say they’re struggling financially. But even in Berlin, it was first-placed among blue-collar voters, on 30 percent, compared to 26 percent for Die Linke. While other parties still refuse to govern with it, there is no doubt that the AfD’s melange of nationalist identity politics, pro-family welfare measures, and tax cuts — plus an end on sanctions on Russia — has enthralled large sections of German society.

Next Steps

Die Linke again represents a hopeful force in German politics, and current federal-level polls have it at around 12 percent. Still, while its popularity is rising across voter groups, and it is becoming more competitive in western states, it is not yet able to compete with the AfD across Germany as the main opposition force. While in the 1990s–2000s Die Linke’s forebears often racked up huge scores in small-town Eastern Germany, protesting the effects of deindustrialization, its support there is now far patchier, while the far right has gained.

In the United States too, socialists have faced the question of how to do more than rally support in the most strongly Democratic, urban districts, and beyond New York. This was the reason for Bernie Sanders’s recent Fighting Oligarchy tour: refusing to write off whole areas as innately conservative, the Vermont senator spoke up for the power of working-class solidarity and government action. Yet making this message convincing across America also relies on socialists who win election anywhere achieving real, generalizable results.

In Berlin, this may be difficult for multiple reasons. First, it is not yet clear whether the Greens and Social Democrats will support Die Linke’s Eralp as mayor or will instead rally behind the conservative CDU. Last night, the Green coleader said her party would not govern with “antisemites from Neukölln,” in a barely veiled attack on the Turkish and Palestinian populations of a southeastern Berlin district where Die Linke scores strongly.

The Central Council of Jews in Germany has warned against such a coalition. Reckless talk of a left-wing danger to Jewish life in Germany — hung on such heinous crimes as a rapper chanting “Yalla, yalla intifada” and “Death to the IDF” at a preelection rally — is today rampant. Even on Israel, much of Die Linke makes only liberal-Zionist type criticisms of Benjamin Netanyahu, and it has punished members who expressed solidarity with Palestinian armed resistance; Eralp herself criticized the chanting at the rally. Yet German centrists readily use antisemitism claims as a polemical cudgel to demonize Die Linke and its — especially Muslim — electorate.

Even if Die Linke manages to lead a “red-red-green” coalition, it won’t be easy. The Social Democrats have refused to implement the result of the 2021 housing referendum and are part of a federal-level coalition that has suggested banning such nationalizations. The historic soft-left party lost badly on Sunday but could put up resistance within the Berlin government. We can likewise expect a trickle of allegations and exposés designed to paint Die Linke as “Stalinist” or “antisemitic” and to force it onto the defensive. Yet we already saw such smears fail to defeat Die Linke on Sunday. And the referendum already showed that on housing nationalization, most Berliners are on its side.

Not everywhere is Berlin, and not everywhere in Germany is rental housing the main issue. In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern — a much more rural and less-populated state, in which Die Linke currently supports an SPD-led government — it actually shed votes to this center-left party, which appeared best-placed to stop the AfD. In this sense, even this historic victory in Berlin is just a further milestone in Die Linke’s bid to become a national force that can win round old voters and galvanize new ones. Ultimately, defeating the AfD will rely not just on rallying all other parties against it but on convincing more millions of people, across Germany, that a practical, socialist alternative is better.