Zohran Mamdani's election night victory speech was the most disdainful I've ever heard.
The ever-smiling Dr. Jekyll turned into the vicious Mr. Hyde.
His attitude was, I won and if you don't like it, tough.
He wasn't even gracious to his main opponent, Andrew Cuomo.
And to suggest that New Yorkers choose "hope over tyranny" was simply ludicrous.
Most troublesome was how he closed his speech, "I am a Muslim. I am a democratic socialist. And most damning of all, I refuse to apologize for any of this."
To help implement his socialist platform that includes free buses, that will cost $800 million annually; the $8 billion universal childcare plan; the $65 million program to finance hormone therapy for children, and the creation of an office of LGBTQIA+ affairs, Mamdani is appointing or considering a collection of far-left comrades to run his administration.
Mamdani's choice for chief-of-staff, 34-year-old Elle Biscard-Church, is a former pro-Palestine college activist.
She enthusiastically supports the creation of a Department of Public Safety that would employ social workers to handle 911 domestic violence calls instead of police officers.
The new deputy mayor, Dean Fuleihan, is a former-Mayor Bill de Blasio retread.
He administered de Blasio's failed coronavirus, economic, fiscal, and defund the police policies which caused social anarchy and a mass exodus of upper- and middle-class taxpayers to Florida and Texas.
At the press conference announcing his appointment, the former de Blasio lap dog said, "I firmly believe in [Mamdani’s] agenda and will work every day to make it happen."
Steve Banks, a self-proclaimed "social justice" advocate, is top contender for the city's corporation counsel.
Banks, a former Legal Aid Society lawyer, is a champion of "right to shelter" protections that ensures a place to live for everyone without a home.
As de Blasio's commissioner of social services, he ended work requirements for many welfare recipients. That decision cost the city over $2.5 billion annually.
During his tenure, the New York Post reported, "he faced criticism over financial scandals and horrid conditions at key not-for-profit homeless shelters with which his agency contracted."
As the city's top lawyer, Banks could hand out tens of millions of taxpayer money to settle suits brought by "social justice" groups.
And there is former congressman, Jamaal Bowman, whose supporters are pressuring Mamdani to appointment him school chancellor.
You remember Bowman?
He's the congressman who pulled a fire alarm in the U.S. Capitol to disrupt congressional proceedings. Bowman, whose constituents booted him from office last year, once ran a middle school illegally. He did not have the required principal license.
The leader of Mamdani's transition team, Lina Khan, is an anti-business radical who served as President Joe Biden's' disastrous chairman of the Federal Trade Commission.
Her job will be to find laws and regulations that will permit Mamdani to sidestep the city Council and New York State Assembly to further his socialist agenda.
Reacting to the Khan appointment, hedge-fund manager Dan Loeb, said "I would hire this person if I were dead set on crafting Soviet style centralized control regime, instituting repressive policies and destroying the economy."
Then there's Mamdani’s political director of the transition team and the inauguration committee, Hassaan Chaudhary.
He accused Israel of being a "barbaric country" and a "bloody country." He lauded as "fearless," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former president of Iran, who said that Israel "is a cancer that will soon be eliminated."
By the way, since Election Day Mamdani has repeated his pledge to lock-up Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, if he steps foot in the Big Apple.
Even though the U.S. government doesn't recognize the authority of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Mamdani said on Nov. 17, "Being a city of international law means looking to uphold international law.
"And that means upholding the warrants from the International Criminal Court, whether they're for Benjamin Netanyahu or Vladimir Putin."
To suggest that New York is a city of "international law" is absurd.
Anyone who's taken a Civics 101 course knows that New York City is a creation of the state and falls under the jurisdiction of the federal and state governments, not an international jurisdiction.
To finance Mamdani's socialist plans, and to address the projected $8 billion operating budget deficit, the city's taxes will have to be raised through the roof.
And if he gets the okay from the state assembly and the governor (which seems likely) to increase the city corporate income tax from 7.25% to 11.55%, the combined state, city, and local corporate surcharges will push the total rate to an astounding 22.5%.
Add that number to the federal government's 21% corporate tax and it will be "Katie bar the door."
Captains of the finance and insurance industries will be packing their bags and heading south on I-95.
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani's decisions and his appointees thus far, indicate he's positioning his administration to destroy the city's economic and tax base.
George J. Marlin, a former executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, is the author of "The American Catholic Voter: Two Hundred Years of Political Impact," and "Christian Persecutions in the Middle East: A 21st Century Tragedy." Read George J. Marlin's Reports — More Here.
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