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Tuesday, April 8, 2025

Anti-Israel radical socialists who’ve backed Mangione plotting to take over UFT: sources

Radical socialists who back anti-Israel groups and alleged CEO killer Luigi Mangione are steadily making inroads into one of the city’s most powerful labor unions, sources warn The Post.

Candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America are polling strongly in elections to lead the United Federation of Teachers — who represent nearly 200,000 educators and manage a welfare fund with $1 billion in assets — which take place next month, according to a source.

The progressive political movement, which backed Vermont governor Bernie Sanders during his presidential campaign in 2016 and was behind New York Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s insurgent victory two years later, set up a strategy to infiltrate labor unions in 2018, according to a report in Politico, citing an internal DSA memo.

Among the candidates vying for the post of president is Amy Arundell, a former Queens borough representative to the UFT who was removed from her position in October 2023 following a public spat with current union leader Michael Mulgrew over the union’s resolution to condemn the October 7, 2023 terrorist strikes on Israel, which left 1,200 Israelis dead.

Zionists are literally the most evil people to walk this earth,” Arundell reposted on her now-disabled X account.

Steve Swieciki, a social studies teacher and candidate for UFT vice president of high schools, described himself as a DSA member in a social media post, and reposted a meme of Luigi Mangione bearing the #FreeLuigi hashtag and the message “Make bad people feel unsafe.”

Mangione is accused of stalking and murdering United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in midtown Manhattan last year. He has pleaded not guilty.

Olivia Swisher, another candidate for UFT president, has links to People’s Forum and was photographed at a meeting of the group in 2022. Swisher follows @nyceducatorsforpalestine on Instagram and Breakthrough News, which is run by People’s Forum.

Swieciki, Swishe rand the DSA did not respond to The Post’s requests for comment. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the UFT’s Unity Caucus reminded all candidates they need to put the union first.

“We are a diverse union with UFT members belonging to a variety of organizations, said LeRoy Barr, chair of the UFT’s Unity Caucus.

“But when a UFT member runs for union office it is with the expectation that they are putting the needs of UFT members first. No outside organization is going to have the same commitment to our members’ livelihoods, working conditions or safety as we do. We serve the interests of our members, not the goals of outside groups.”

Arundell responded to those comments in a statement to The Post, saying: “My only interest is in the future of educators, students and the UFT. Anyone who suggests otherwise is a liar and is trying to distract our members from Mulgrew’s record of health care and pension disasters.”

Following the October 7 attacks, some DSA chapters became more radicalized and helped organize violent anti-Israel protests and glorified the Palestinian “resistance,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.

And in 2019, DSA organized a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Working Group, which promotes boycotts and sanctions against Israel. By July 2024, 26 local DSA chapters “passed resolutions declaring themselves explicitly anti-Zionist,” according to the ADL.

The UFT’s Movement of Rank-and-File Educators (MORE) caucus collaborated with DSA to organize several pro-Palestinian demonstrations after the Oct.7 attacks in New York City.

MORE’s public Google Calendar shows an entry for “NYC Educators for Palestine — Walkout Debrief” for November 27, 2023.

DSA has also worked to organize opposition to Mulgrew within the union.

In March 2024, New York City’s DSA chapter held a panel discussion on “Public Sector Organizing in Our City.” Panelist Sarah Slichter, a member of the MORE steering committee, represented the UFT. In 2013, she was identified as the “Northeast US Coordinator for Young Democratic Socialists,” the DSA youth branch.

The panel was hosted at the People’s Forum, a Manhattan non-profit that has organized anti-Israel demonstrations.

Less than a year later, in January 2025, the Flatbush chapter of DSA posted an advertisement for a three-part series on “What is a socialist education?” The post noted that one of the main topics covered would be the “upcoming mayoral and UFT elections in NYC.”

Mayoral Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani is also backed by the DSA.

https://nypost.com/2025/04/08/us-news/radical-socialists-plotting-to-take-over-united-federation-of-teachers-sources/

US attorney general to lead Justice Department push on gun rights

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi will lead a Justice Department effort to enforce gun rights protected under the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, according to a memo seen by Reuters on Tuesday.

The effort will use lawsuits and government policy to push back at attempts to limit gun rights, Bondi said in the memo.

https://www.aol.com/news/us-attorney-general-lead-justice-214009665.html

Bristol Opdivo plus Yervoy FDA OK for colorectal cancer

Based on the Phase 3 CheckMate-8HW trial, Opdivo plus Yervoy demonstrated reduction in the risk of disease progression or death by 79% vs. chemotherapy in the first-line setting and by 38% vs. Opdivo monotherapy across all lines of therapy ¹

The approval was granted more than two months ahead of the Prescription Drug User Fee Act goal date

https://www.biospace.com/press-releases/u-s-food-and-drug-administration-approves-opdivo-nivolumab-plus-yervoy-ipilimumab-as-a-treatment-for-patients-with-previously-untreated-microsatellite-instability-high-or-mismatch-repair-deficient-unresectable-or-metastatic-colorectal-cancer1

Trump Wannabe Syndrome

by Stephen Soukup via American Greatness,

Democrats don’t hate Trump... they want to be him, mimicking his style but failing to connect with voters, exposing their desperation and lack of authenticity...

By now, everyone and his brother is familiar with Trump Derangement Syndrome, that particular pathology that drives liberals and even many conservatives absolutely batty. Not only does Trump drive his opponents and detractors to fits of apoplexy, but he also compels them to make foolish statements and to embrace positions they would otherwise never even consider. During Trump’s first presidency, at the height of the COVID panic, the left openly and ardently dismissed a vaccine as partisan quackery. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, then running against Trump, openly warned that “his” vaccine was not to be trusted, that they would be hesitant to take it, and that they were sure the experts would not recommend it. As soon as they hit 270 electoral votes, however, that vaccine was suddenly the greatest thing in the history of ever, and you better take it…or else! And while there are good and just reasons to support Ukraine in its war with Russia, it is almost inarguable that the American Left’s obsession with the war, with Ukraine, and with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is a byproduct of its belief that Donald Trump is on Putin’s side and, therefore, they must do precisely the opposite. Whatever he likes, they hate. Whatever he supports, they oppose. Whatever he says, they say the opposite. And so it has been for roughly a decade now.

Lately, however, a new Trump-related syndrome has begun to manifest among his opponents, one that is equally potent, equally idiocy-inducing, and equally self-defeating. This new syndrome has been prevalent among Democrats for the last several months at least, but only recently has it clearly distinguished itself from all the Democrats’ other pathologies. The key moment in the diagnosis of this syndrome came just the other night, when Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (D, TX) spoke at a banquet in Los Angeles and referred to her state’s Governor Greg Abbott as “Governor Hot Wheels.” Abbott, of course, is wheelchair-bound after a freak accident 41 years ago left him paralyzed. Crockett insisted that she meant no offense and adamantly refused to apologize.

In the several days since the incident, critics have pilloried the Congresswoman, who had already been in the news for her brash, combative, and tacky approach to dealing with the second Trump team. Some have said that she deserves to be censured. Others have chalked her stupidity up to the above-mentioned Trump Derangement Syndrome. Still others cheer her on and hope that she remains the face of the Democratic Party for a long time to come, laughing at how terribly her antics play with ordinary voters. All of these folks have valid cases, to some degree or another, yet all seem to have missed the larger point here. Jasmine Crockett isn’t acting like this because she’s mad at Trump or because he’s driven her crazy. She’s acting this way because she admires him, at last subconsciously, and she wants to be like him, to capture some of his winning lightning in Democrats’ losing bottle.

This isn’t a case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. It’s a case of Trump Wannabe Syndrome (TWS™).

It isn’t just Crockett. Ever since Trump and Vance won last November, Democrats have been swearing, snarling, and trying to be as crude as possible. A few weeks back, in a premeditated publicity stunt, Arizona Senator (and former astronaut) Mark Kelly (D) filmed himself with his Tesla and whined about how he could no longer stand to drive the car. Once upon a time, he said, it felt like a “rocket” to him, but now he didn’t want it around because it was “built and designed by an a**hole,” meaning DOGE boss Elon Musk. “Wow,” he assumed we’d all say, “such tough talk from an otherwise staid and cautious guy. He must be really fed up!” No one actually cared, of course, but Kelly likely didn’t realize that. He’s a Democrat, after all, which is to say that he doesn’t have a whole lot of contact with actual rank-and-file voters.

Therein lies the rub for Democrats. They see Trump out there swearing and using vulgar vernacular and maybe, once in a while, even making fun of disabled people. And then they see him winning, winning big, and winning among their erstwhile constituencies. And they think to themselves, “I can do that too, you know! In fact, I can do it better than he does it!” So, they try. And they fail. And the voters cringe.

What the Democrats don’t understand is that Trump’s appeal has nothing to do with being crass. There is no doubt that he is crass sometimes, but that’s a function of his personality. It just flows from him, and while it may make the cocktail-party set wince a bit, it nevertheless fits him and seems perfectly natural.

Like all supremely successful politicians, Trump has a gift, an uncanny ability to connect with people in a way that transcends politics and ideology. Ronald Reagan had the gift. Bill Clinton had it too. Even Barack Obama, the Condescender-in-Chief, showed flashes of the gift on occasion.

It’s worth noting that the gift is not something one can fake, learn, or imitate. You either have it or you don’t.

Jasmine Crockett doesn’t have it.

Mark Kelly doesn’t have it.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez doesn’t have it.

Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer sure as heck don’t have it.

And the more they try to fake it, the more grotesque and cringeworthy they appear.

Love him or hate him, Donald Trump represents something extraordinary in American politics. His connection to average voters, in spite of his vast fortune and privileged life, is as remarkable as it is inexplicable. His Democratic opponents have lost their ability to connect to average folks through policy and rhetoric, and they want desperately to recapture what they once had. Rather than put in the hard work of listening to voters and resisting special interest groups, however, they seek a quick fix.

They seek what Donald Trump has. They don’t hate him. They want to be him when they grow up.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/trump-wannabe-syndrome

Dems lit ‘assassination culture’ fuse — now their silence equals violence

Karol Markowicz

How much longer will Democrats accept their supporters’ escalating calls for violence?

The weekend “Hands Off” protests were wholly expected. President Trump riles up the left like few can.

During his first term, the pink-hat protesters hit the streets days after his inauguration. That this administration made it to April without them was something of a miracle.

But Saturday’s demonstrations featured an undercurrent of violent rhetoric.

In New York, a man dressed up as Luigi of “Super Mario Bros.” to honor Luigi Mangione, the murderer of health-care executive Brian Thompson. He carried a sign calling for Trump to be “deposed” — that is, violently overthrown.

In Holland, Mich., Redmond, Ore., and elsewhere, grinning marchers wore shirts and carried placards emblazoned with the number “8647,” pairing the old slang term for murder with a 47 for Trump.

One 8647 protester stood right alongside Minnesota Attorney Gen. Keith Ellison in Minneapolis.

“Hands off or heads off,” read the message on a life-sized guillotine paraded about in Denver.

Protesters vandalized ICE and DHS vehicles in Washington, DC, defacing several and puncturing their tires — after weeks of viral videos of people keying, graffitiing or burning Teslas permeated social media.

It’s not just property either: Over the weekend, a man was arrested in Portland after he used a laser to attempt to blind a Tesla employee.

A leftist protester who blocked traffic at a “Hands Off” rally in Lafayette, Ind., head-butted a driver who confronted him, bloodying the driver’s nose, local police said.

On Thursday, conservative students hosting a speaker at the University of California-Davis were targeted by masked assailants who tore up literature and wrecked tents and tables.

That same day in Harlem, an angry leftist punched a pro-life activist in the face while she was conducting a live interview. She was left bloodied and needed stitches.

A new report from the Network Contagion Research Institute found that more than half of left-leaning Americans say political violence is “acceptable” — with 55% of them seeing “some justification” for assassinating Trump.

It certainly feels like a powder keg, as violence is excused and celebrated online as never before.

I saw my first inkling of this trend on my Facebook feed soon after November’s election — political memes and posts with increasingly savage imagery and language.

I didn’t follow any of these pages, or any accounts similar to them. Yet Facebook began repeatedly showing me far-left commentary that veered into violent fantasy.

One of these was a photoshop of Melania Trump cozying up to Mangione, murmuring, “I was wondering if you could do me a little favor.”

Fantasizing about killing Trump, just after two attempts were made on his life, is perfectly acceptable on the platform that once banned people for questioning whether masking was effective against COVID.

Another group, Guillotines for a Better America, revels in this imagery.

One recent post, picturing cartoon children beating a piñata, was captioned, “Instead of fruitlessly waiting for wealth to trickle down, beat the rich with blunt instruments until the gold flows.”

I’ve been fed multiple versions of a purported still from “The Simpsons” showing a blood-covered Trump in a casket with the date April 12, 2025. It’s fake, but disturbingly popular.

This kind of content is served to me regularly. This is, allegedly, humor.

The hysterical online aggression is beginning to spill off the internet into the real world. It feels dangerous, much like the run-up to the “mostly peaceful” riots of 2020 that left 25 people dead.

We watched cities burn then as Democrats, and their media friends, tried to excuse away the horror.

But now Democratic politicians have gotten very quiet.

For months they’ve been agitating their base.

“We are at war,” Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) shouted in February, as she denounced what she called Trump’s “hostile takeover” of the government he was elected to lead.

“We have to fight in the streets,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).

Now, the fuse is lit — and the elected firebrands have nothing to say.

Voters chose Trump, very recently and very specifically, to shake Washington up.

It’s OK to protest, to loudly oppose the changes Trump was elected to make. That’s part of America’s political legacy.

But “assassination culture,” as the lead author of the NCRI report calls the new spike in violent rhetoric, is not.

Democrats don’t get a pass on it this time. They set this ball rolling; they own it. Their silence now is encouragement.

They need to be the ones to stop it. Time to take responsibility and lower the temperature.

https://nypost.com/2025/04/08/opinion/democrats-lit-the-assassination-culture-fuse-now-their-silence-equals-violence/