If anybody is still accusing Bill Maher of being pro-Trump, have a gander at this nine-minute clip from “Real Time” two weeks ago (I missed this one). It’s a scathing indictment of people who criticize Democrats but neglect the news showing that MAGA and Trump are far more odious. (He begins by calling out ICE for what happened to Renée Good.) The money quote: “Trump isn’t draining the swamp—he’s bottling it.”
At 5:30, however, he can’t resist giving a lick to Democrats for ignoring the rants Cea Weaver, Zohran Mamdani’s apointee to protect tenants, has emitted on social media. They include “If you don’t believe in the government’s sacred right to seize private property, it’s over,” “Private property, especially home ownership, is a weapon of white supremacy,” “Impoverish the white middle class,” and “Elect more communists.” Maher then reads between the lines and calls Mamdani a “straight-up communist.” That may be hyperbolic, but I think he’s more extreme than most voters realized, and I’m amazed at the degree of enthusiasm for him.
Maher’s point is that people need to absorb the news that’s inimical to their own ideology, painful though that may be. It’s not the best of his bits, but it’s okay.
Weaver’s alleged statements aren’t made up. The NY Post quoted some of them, and then, in its latest report on her, adds this:
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s newly instated radical-left tenant advocate, Cea Weaver, broke down Wednesday as she dodged questions from reporters about her gentrification hypocrisy.
The 37-year-old, who has faced backlash for blasting homeownership as a “weapon of white supremacy” in the past, teared up when she emerged briefly from her apartment building in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, at about 9 a.m.
Weaver, who was tapped by Mamdani to be his new director of the city Office to Protect Tenants, quickly ran back inside after she was asked about the $1.6 million home her mother owns in Nashville, Tennessee.
Mamdani has a bright future in the Democratic Party so long as it leans wokeish.
“That may be hyperbolic, but I think he’s more extreme than most voters realized, and I’m amazed at the degree of enthusiasm for him.”
I hope Mamdani undergoes a sort of Thomas Sowell epiphany after spending time in the actual government and around the bureaucracy. Sowell, the great pro-market economist and author (still going strong in his 90s), was in his younger days an ardent Marxist. This is despite taking college courses in economics from Milton Friedman!
However, a stint working for the government cured him forever of his extreme socialism. Getting out of the classroom and off the campus and into the nitty-gritty of the real world introduces new data.
But it takes intelligence and fortitude to undergo such a conversion. I haven’t seen anything yet from Mamdani that indicates he has an abundance of these qualities.
Cea Weaver would also fit in well with the German left-wing political scene. We also have quite a few rich/very rich people here who like to talk about social justice or expropriating homeowners or business owners, or declare their unconditional solidarity with the residents of the Gaza Strip, even if they openly support Hamas. The former leader of the Left Party and BSW Sahra Wagenknecht comes to mind first, or the millionaire heiress Marlene Engelhorn.