Deep in the Board of Supes agenda for Tuesday/28 is a resolution offered without committee reference that could move forward a plan that alter municipal finance, affordable housing, and ultimately, banking in San Francisco.
Sup. Jackie Fielder is asking the board to approve a resolution calling on the city treasurer to move forward to create a municipal green bank. The supes have already approved the concept, and Fielder has five cosponsors, so unless one member objects and demands that the proposal be sent to committee, this will pass.
That the Board acknowledges the need for funding from various federal, state, and local sources, including philanthropic sources, to support the design and establishment of the SFGB, and urges the Mayor, the Board, and other departments, to explore and pursue these funding opportunities.
Not sure how much federal or state money is going to be available; Donald Trump would never go for this kind of program, and now that Gov. Gavin Newsom is running for president, he’s going to be terrified of any connection to anything that could be smeared as “socialist.”
(The SF Standard story, which is fine and fair, has the worst possible headline: “If you’re a California billionaire, hide your wallet,” which plays into the idea that rich people should look for ways to avoid paying taxes. How about: “If you’re a billionaire who has never, ever, paid your fair share of taxes, it’s time to open your wallet for the good of society.”)
It appears that 2026 will be a year when local and statewide voters may have a chance to approve some progressive taxes. Some of that money could fund a public bank that could then fund affordable housing.
That item is at the end of an agenda that starts at 2pm.
48 Hills welcomes comments in the form of letters to the editor, which you can submit here. We also invite you to join the conversation on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Tim Redmond has been a political and investigative reporter in San Francisco for more than 30 years. He spent much of that time as executive editor of the Bay Guardian. He is the founder of 48hills.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to members of his country’s internal spy agency on October 27, 2025 in Jerusalem.
(Photo by Benjamin Netanyahu/X)
Israel accused Hamas of breaking the US-brokered ceasefire in a manner in which no one was physically harmed. Gaza officials say Israel has violated the truce 125 times, killing or wounding hundreds of Palestinians.
Following Israel’s 125 reported violations of the October 10 Gaza ceasefire in attacks that have killed or wounded hundreds of Palestinians, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday ordered “powerful strikes” in response to an alleged Hamas breach of the deal in which no one was physically harmed.
Netanyahu’s office said the right-wing prime minister instructed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to immediately carry out the attacks on the flattened strip, where two years of genocidal war and siege have left at least 248,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing, hundreds of thousands of others starving; and the vast majority of Gaza’s more than 2 million people forcibly displaced.
Israel said the decision to escalate came after IDF invaders—none of whom were reportedly harmed—came under fire in southern Gaza, and amid Israeli anger over alleged Hamas subterfuge regarding the return of bodily remains from an Israeli hostage abducted during the October 7, 2023 attack.
Netanyahu’s announcement also came on the same day that the prime minister appeared in a Jerusalem court to continue his testimony in his ongoing trial for alleged fraud, breach of trust, and bribery. His testimony was cut off three hours early due to unspecified “security developments.” Critics, including relatives of hostages, have accused Netanyahu of unnecessarily prolonging the war in order to further delay his trial. The prime minister denies any wrongdoing.
Hamas said it would respond to Israel’s escalation by delaying the handover of the remaining 13 dead hostages it either holds or is trying to locate. The armed resistance group, which governs Gaza, said Tuesday it had recovered the body of another hostage.
The Gaza Government Media Office responded to Israel’s accusation of Hamas ceasefire violations by noting what it said are 125 incidents in which Israeli forces broke the truce, “resulting in the killing of 94 Palestinians and the injury of more than 344 others.”
Israeli violations of the current ceasefire include several massacres, such as the October 18 bombing of a bus that killed at least 11 members of the Abu Shaaban family, who were trying to return to inspect their home in Gaza City. Among the victims were three women and seven children ages 5-13.
Israel was also accused of nearly 1,000 violations of the previous ceasefire earlier this year—breaches that officials said left at least 116 civilians dead and nearly 500 others wounded.
There has been scant reporting of Israeli ceasefire breaches in the US corporate media. In a glaring act of apparently selective inattention, the Associated Press on Tuesday called Netanyahu’s strike order “a new test for the US-brokered ceasefire.”
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New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks during an election rally at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens on October 26, 2025.
(Photo by Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“Zohran Mamdani is showing the way for politicians who still haven’t figured out that fairer taxes on the rich and corporations are both good policy and good politics,” said the head of Americans for Tax Fairness.
A week away from Election Day in New York City, a national economic justice group on Tuesday released a report detailing how billionaires “outraged at the prospect of the rich and corporations paying higher taxes” have spent millions of dollars to defeat Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani.
“Just 62 billionaires and descendants of billionaire families (‘billionaire spenders’) as of October 14th have contributed over one-third—37%, or $18.7 million—of all the donations collected by so-called outside expenditure groups involved in the race,” according to the Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund (ATFAF) report, Billionaires Buying Gracie Mansion.
The publication notes that “almost all of that money has backed former New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo,” who is running as an Indepedent after losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani, a democratic socialist in the state Assembly who has campaigned on promises to make the metropolis more affordable for everyday people and “tax the rich!”
Specifically, 58 of the 62 billionaire spenders gave “a total of $18.4 million to Cuomo-aligned super political action committees (super PACs), ATFAF found. ”Mamdani has received the support of just two billionaire spenders, who together have contributed $270,000 to outside PACs pushing his candidacy.“
The report highlights that billionaire former NYC mayor and media mogul Michael Bloomberg, who has a net worth of roughly $109 billion, “is leading the anti-Mamdani charge, having personally donated $8.3 million to the main super PAC backing Cuomo.”
Bloomberg and the dozens of other billionaires trying to sway the race “have spent nearly twice the amount 60,000 individual contributors have made directly to the three general election candidates (including Republican Curtis Sliwa),” the document details. “This is because unlike direct donations to candidates, there is no limit on contributions to outside spending groups.”
New York is not only the nation’s most populous city, it’s also a billionaire hotspot. The report points out that “as of October 1st, New York City is the primary residence to 111 billionaires, according to Forbes, with lots more owning second homes or business property in the Big Apple. Collectively, these 111 billionaires are worth $717 billion, over six times the city’s annual budget.”
While Cuomo is backed by billionaires, Mamdani is endorsed by national progressive leaders, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), whose district spans parts of the Bronx and Queens. The pair joined New York state leaders, including Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, for a massive Sunday night rally in support of Mamdani.
In addition to taxing corporations and the 1%, Mamdani’s platform includes a rent freeze, constructing more affordable housing, city-owned grocery stores, fare-free buses, no-cost childcare, building out renewable energy on public lands, raising the minimum wage to $30 by 2030, and more.
The progressive candidate has also promised to stand up to Republican President Donald Trump, a former longtime New Yorker who has threatened to arrest Mamadani and to cut all federal funds to New York City if he is victorious next week. Recent polling suggests Mamdani is well-positioned to win the contest.
“Billionaires feel threatened by a modest proposal to raise taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers to help make life more affordable for ordinary city residents. That’s why they’re spending millions to drown out the effort with their money,” Americans for Tax Fairness executive director David Kass said in a Tuesday statement.
“Politicians and policymakers around the country should take note of how popular a progressive tax agenda can be with Americans across the political spectrum,” Kass added. “Zohran Mamdani is showing the way for politicians who still haven’t figured out that fairer taxes on the rich and corporations are both good policy and good politics.”
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The Lincoln Project Oct 28, 2025 The Epstein files stay hidden, but the Epstein Ballroom will be a prominent display. The Lincoln Project is a leading pro-democracy organization in the United States — dedicated to the preservation, protection, and defense of democracy. Our fight against Trumpism is only beginning. We must combat these forces everywhere and at all times — our democracy depends on it. Don’t forget to like, share, and follow The Lincoln Project on social media below!
Trains have played a crucial role in industrial development over the past 150 years but could they also play an important part in our carbon-free future?
Remember that movie Singles from the ’90s? The one with espresso angst, flannel obsessions, and a killer soundtrack featuring the likes of Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and The Smashing Pumpkins?
Somewhere between the love triangles set against the backdrop of the emerging Seattle grunge scene, there’s a subplot that focuses on a character named Steve Dunne, an idealistic city planner with a vision he believes will change the world: the Supertrain.
His plan seemed simple enough: build a citywide high-speed rail network that would cut congestion, clean the air, and maybe, just maybe, make people’s lives a little saner. As Steve puts it in the film, “You give people a reason to get out of their cars. Coffee, great music … they will park and ride. I know they will.”
Back then, Steve’s dream of a cleaner, connected future built on rails felt more nostalgic than realistic. Cars were, and still are, the ultimate freedom. They are youth and identity wrapped up in steel and gasoline.
Skip to three decades later and the idea behind Steve’s Supertrain is curiously relevant in a world looking to reduce emissions and simplify urban commutes. What started out as a random movie subplot has become more of a premonition, and decades later we are seeing the rhythm of the idea echoing beyond the Seattle skyline.
Rail lines once written off as relics are stirring back to life. Europe is reviving its night trains. Asia’s networks stretch across mountains and borders. Even the United States, which can sometimes appear allergic to collective transit, is once again flirting with the idea that speed and sustainability might share the same track. Cities like Seattle are expanding light-rail networks that connect neighborhoods once divided by traffic and distance.
And the call isn’t just coming from idealists this time – the prestigious science journal Nature is also now arguing for a global rail revival – not as a nostalgic nod to the past, but as a pragmatic cornerstone of climate strategy. The authors argue reviving rail isn’t only about transport efficiency, but about equity and reconnecting rural regions left behind by shrinking air routes and urban sprawl. Their case is simple: if the world is serious about climate drawdown, rails must carry part of the load.
And the data supports that call to action and sense of urgency. According to IEA’s latest estimates, rail now carries about 7% of global passenger travel and 6% of freight tonne-km, yet accounts for approximately 1% of transport-related emissions. It’s one of the few systems that moves millions while keeping sustainability and emissions in check.
Why Trains Matter Again
The return of rail isn’t just about nostalgia or novelty; it’s about adapting in a fast-paced world and finding balance.Transportation today contributes a large share of global greenhouse gas emissions, with cars and planes being a significant part of that equation.
In Great Britain alone, the Office of Rail & Road reports that total passenger and freight train CO₂e emissions rose ~5% in 2023–24 to 2,357 kilotonnes, with passenger service accounting for ~1,917 kt and freight ~440 kt.
When it comes to efficiency, rail often outshines its competition. Studies show operating emissions for rail can be as low as 31 g CO₂e per passenger-km on electrified routes, a number far below many conventional car or plane comparisons.
Meanwhile, comparisons of transport modes highlight rail’s comparative advantage. One analysis notes national rail emits ~35 g CO₂e per kilometer, while average gasoline cars emit ~170 g – meaning that train travel can correspond to only ~20% of the carbon per person compared to driving.
But the appeal of trains goes deeper than simple emissions statistics. Trains offer something our car-centric world has quietly eroded – shared space. A train car is democracy on wheels: executives beside students, tourists beside grandparents, everyone staring out the same window at the same horizon. There’s equity in that, and efficiency too. Trains restore time that freeways steal: hours you can read, work, talk, or simply grab some shuteye.
Economically speaking, trains also have the ability to stitch regions back together through infrastructure and job creation. The US Department of Transportation estimates that every US$1 billion invested in rail infrastructure creates about 24,000 jobs and generates roughly $2.50 in economic return for every dollar spent. In Europe, regions served by new high-speed lines have seen tourism rise by as much as 25 to 30% within five years. Towns once bypassed by interstates are humming again when the tracks reopen.
Even Project Drawdown – a leading nonprofit that ranks global climate solutions by impact – lists rail and transit improvements among the world’s top 25 strategies. By mid-century, those efforts could avoid more than 5 gigatons of CO₂ – roughly equivalent to the annual emissions of the entire United States. A jaw-dropping number, to say the least.
On the Other Track
Of course, not every set of tracks leads to progress. Big rail projects can have a way of derailing due to politics, budgets, and geography. California’s high-speed line, for example, is a poster child for stalled progress: envisioned as a sleek bullet route between Los Angeles and San Francisco, it’s now years behind schedule and billions over budget. Across the Atlantic, Britain’s HS2 project has faced similar turbulence, shrinking in scope even as costs expand.
The plain truth is, trains are hard.
They demand coordination across decades rather than election cycles. They require land, patience – and more importantly, public will. But these failures don’t erase the point; they just remind us that no single fix works everywhere. Even Project Drawdown makes this plain, there’s no silver bullet.
Instead, progress depends on a mosaic of smaller, smarter moves including renewable energy, regenerative agriculture, better transit, and cleaner industry, to name a few. Trains have their place in that mix, alongside electric cars, bikes, buses, and better urban planning.
The Long Return
The world Steve Dunne imagined in the early 1990s – the one where trains save us all – was charming, but ultimately incomplete. Even in the film, that truth lingers between the lines, when a character named Linda responds to his idealism with quiet honesty: “I still love my car, though.”
It wasn’t cynicism, just honesty. And maybe Linda was right. We’r well into the 21st century and people do still love their cars. Not just for what they do, but for the quiet message they send about who we are. A car is privacy, identity, rhythm; it’s the feeling of controlling your own small world. Even in an age of shared rides and climate deadlines, that emotional bond hasn’t, and likely won’t, go away any time soon.
But maybe it doesn’t have to. The truth is, we’ll always need more than one way forward. Progress isn’t about choosing one path over another; it’s about building a system where each solution supports the whole – trains linking cities, electric cars connecting the gaps, and local transit filling what’s left in between.
In the end, maybe that’s what progress looks like. Not one path replacing another, but all of them moving forward together. The goal isn’t just to move faster, but wisely, toward a world that can sustain the journey.
Chelsea’s path to science began with a love of writing, initially starting out as a journalism major before falling in love with geology and quantum physics. Alongside indulging her deep curiosity for all things science writing, Chelsea also works as a data analyst and copyeditor.
At a rally last night in Queens, New York, with Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Zohran Mamdani addressed a crowd of 13,000: “For too long, freedom has belonged only to those who can afford to buy it.”
Bernie Sanders, Zohran Mamdani, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at a rally for Mamdani in Queens, New York. (Andres Kudacki / Getty Images)
Looking out at more than 13,000 of you here in Forest Hills Stadium, it is tempting to believe that this moment was always destined. Yet when we launched this campaign on October 23, one year and three days ago, there was not a single television camera there to cover it.
When we launched this campaign one year and three days ago, my name was a statistical anomaly in every poll. Four months later, as recently as this February, our support had reached the eye-watering heights of 1 percent. We were tied with noted candidate “someone else.” I always knew we could beat him.
When we launched this campaign one year and three days ago, the political world did not pay it much attention, because we were looking to build a movement that reflected the city as it actually is, not just the one that political consultants think exists on a spreadsheet.
And when we launched this campaign one year and three days ago, we were dismissed as a punchline in the halls of power. The idea of fundamentally changing who government serves in this city was unimaginable. Even if we gained momentum, they asked, how would we ever overcome the tens of millions of dollars in attacks that would follow?
Yet we knew then what we know now. New York is not for sale.
As young people showed up in record numbers, as immigrants saw themselves in the politics of their city, as seniors once skeptical dared to dream again, we spoke with one voice: New York is not for sale.
And now, as we stand on the precipice of taking this city back from corrupt politicians and the billionaires that fund them, let our words ring out so loud tonight that Andrew Cuomo can hear them in his $8,000-a-month apartment. Let them ring so loud so that he could hear us even if he’s in Westchester this evening. Let them ring so loud that his puppet master in the White House hears us: “New York is not for sale.”
Thirteen days after we announced our candidacy, Donald Trump won the presidency once again. The Bronx and Queens saw some of the largest shifts to the Right of any counties in our country. No matter what article you read or channel you turned to, the story seemed to be the same: our city was headed to the Right.
Obituaries were written about Democrats’ abilities to reach Asian voters, young voters, male voters. Again and again, we were told that if we had any hope of beating the Republican Party, it would only be by becoming the Republican Party.
Andrew Cuomo himself said that we had lost not because we had failed to speak to the needs of working-class Americans, but because we had spent too much time talking about bathrooms and sports teams.
This was a moment where it seemed our political horizon was narrowing. And in this moment, New York, you had a choice. A choice to retreat or to fight. And the choice that we made was to stop listening to those experts and to start listening to you.
We went to two of the places that saw the biggest swings to the Right: Fordham Road and Hillside Avenue. These New Yorkers were far from the caricature of Trump voters.
They told us they supported Donald Trump because they felt disconnected from a Democratic Party that had grown comfortable with mediocrity and gave its time only to those who gave millions. They told us that they felt abandoned by a party beholden to corporations which asked them for their votes after telling them only what it was against rather than presenting a vision of what it was for.
They told us they didn’t believe in a system anymore that did not even pretend to offer solutions to the defining challenge of their lives, the cost-of-living crisis. Rent was too expensive. So were groceries. So was childcare. So was taking the bus. And working two or three jobs still wasn’t enough.
Trump, for all his many flaws, had promised them an agenda that would put more money in their pockets and lower the cost of living. Donald Trump lied. It was up to us to deliver for the working people he left behind.
Over the eight months of the primary, we told New Yorkers how we intended to address that very same affordability crisis. We did not do it alone.
This was a movement powered by tens of thousands of everyday New Yorkers who knocked doors between twelve-hour shifts at work and phonebanked until their fingers were numb. People who had never voted before became diehard canvassers. Community formed. Our city got to know each other and itself. This, my friends, was your movement, and it always will be.
As the snow melted and the frost thawed, this campaign began to grow faster than anyone ever imagined possible. So many small donors chipped in that we had to ask you to stop donating. Please stop.
We climbed the polls faster than Andrew Cuomo could dial Donald Trump’s number. People started to learn how to pronounce my name.
And the billionaires got scared. Or, as the New York Times would describe it, the Hamptons was basically in group therapy about the mayoral race.These big money donors and disgraced politicians have sought to rob us of our ambition, because they do not think that you deserve the beauty of a dignified life.
Andrew Cuomo and his corporate cronies did everything they could to make this campaign one of fear and one of smallness. They pumped millions into this race, artificially lengthened my beard to make me seem menacing, painted our city as a dystopian hell hole, and worked night and day to divide the people of New York.
They failed.
When I walked the length of Manhattan just a few days before the election, hundreds of New Yorkers marched alongside me. And when we strode into Time Square under a billboard with betting odds that showed Cuomo’s chances of winning at nearly 80 percent. We knew that the so-called experts were set to get it wrong yet again.
Andrew Cuomo was supposed to be inevitable. And then on June 24, we shattered that inevitability.
We won by 13 percent, with the most votes in any citywide primary in New York City history. Some of those New Yorkers had voted for Trump. Many others had never voted before. And when Andrew Cuomo called me to concede at 10:15 that night, he said over the phone that we had created a tremendous force.
When you insist on building a coalition with room for every New Yorker, that is exactly what you create: a tremendous force. That force has only grown over these past four months. We now have more than 90,000 volunteers.
And we have spoken to millions more New Yorkers. We have put forth new plans in these last few months for how we will govern, hiring thousands more teachers for our schools, taking on the consultants and the contracts in city government, and tackling the final boss of New York City infrastructure: scaffolding.
But over the past few weeks, as this race has entered its final days, we have witnessed displays of Islamophobia that shock the conscience.
Andrew Cuomo, Eric Adams, and Curtis Sliwa do not have an agenda for the future. All they possess is the playbook of the past. They have sought to make this election a referendum, not on the affordability crisis that consumes New Yorkers’ lives, but on the faith I belong to and the hatred they seek to normalize.
We spent months working to convince the world that New Yorkers have a right to afford this city that we all love. Now we are being forced to defend the idea that a Muslim is even allowed to lead it.
These same big money donors and disgraced politicians have sought to rob us of our ambition, because they do not think that you deserve the beauty of a dignified life. And time and again they have encouraged you to imagine less because they know that a reimagined New York hurts their bottom line. I believe that this city is like the universe, constantly expanding.
We deserve a city government as ambitious as the working New Yorkers who make it the greatest city in the world. We cannot wait for someone else to deliver it. We are not afforded the luxury of waiting, because too often to wait is to trust those who delivered us to this point. On November 4, we will set the course of our city back in the direction it belongs.
And in doing so, we will answer a question that our nation has wrestled with from the dawn of our founding: Who is allowed to be free?
There are some who hear that question, and they know the answer without hesitation. They are the oligarchs who have accumulated vast wealth off those who labor from before the light breaks on the horizon until long after color has drained from the sky. These are the robber barons of America, and they believe their money affords them a larger say than the rest of us.
I am not just talking about the Bill Ackmans and Ken Langones of the world. I speak of people whose names you are not familiar with, who have no qualms about contributing more to super PACs than we would ever tax them, and who celebrate when those PACs flood our airwaves with commercials that plaster the words “global jihad” over my face.
Their freedom doesn’t just come at the expense of dignity and truth. It comes at the expense of the freedoms of others too. They are the authoritarians who seek to keep us pressed beneath their thumbs, because they know that once we shake ourselves loose, we will never be held down again.
Each and every one of these people think New York is for sale. For too long, my friends, freedom has belonged only to those who can afford to buy it. The oligarchs of New York are the wealthiest people in the wealthiest city, in the wealthiest nation, in the history of the world. They do not want the equation to change. They will do everything they can to prevent their grip from weakening.
The truth is as simple as it is nonnegotiable. We are all allowed freedom.
Each one of us, the working people of this city, the taxi drivers, the line cooks, the nurses, all those seeking lives of grace, not greed — we all get to be free.
And on November 4, thanks to the hard work of more than 90,000 volunteers across every corner of this city, that is exactly what we will tell the world. Because while Donald Trump’s billionaire donors think that they have the money to buy this election, we have a movement of the masses. And we are a movement that is not afraid of what we believe. And we’ve believed it for quite some time.
Those who worry about what this movement may look like on January 1 are the ones who worried on October 23 what it may look like tonight. But our purpose has not changed and neither have our promises.
As I said on the evening I announced, the job of government is to actually make our lives better. And in the exact words I said on October 23, here is what we stand for, my friends.
We are going to freeze the rent for more than two million rent-stabilized tenants and use every resource at our disposal to build housing for everyone who needs it.Dignity, my friends, is another way of saying freedom.
We are going to eliminate the fare on every single bus line and make what are currently the slowest buses in the nation move around this city with ease.
And we are going to create universal childcare at no cost to parents, so New Yorkers can raise their family in the city they love.
Together, New York, we’re going to freeze the [crowd yells “rent!”]
Together, New York, we’re going to make buses fast and [crowd yells “free!”]
Together, New York, we’re going to deliver universal [crowd yells“childcare!”]
We will make our city one where every person who calls it home can live a dignified life. No New Yorker should ever be priced out of anything they need to survive.
And we believed then, we believe today, we will believe tomorrow that it is government’s job to deliver that dignity.
Dignity, my friends, is another way of saying freedom.
Standing before you this evening, I take great strength from those who have labored mightily for the cause of freedom in America, who refused to accept that government could not meet what moments of crisis demanded from it. When the power of the people overwhelms the influence of the powerful, there is no crisis that government cannot meet.
It was government that enacted a New Deal to lift a generation out of poverty, to create beautiful public goods, and establish the right to unionize and collectively bargain.
My friends, the era of government that deems an issue too small or a crisis too big must come to an end. Because we need a government that is every bit as ambitious as our adversaries. A government strong enough to refuse the realities we will not accept and forge the future we know we deserve.
A government that refuses to accept one in four New Yorkers living in poverty, that refuses to accept more than 150,000 public school students being homeless, that refuses to accept that two union salaries are not enough to put down a mortgage in this city, and a government that refuses to accept you being priced out of the very city you help to build every single day.
Time and again, our nation has teetered on the precipice of hopelessness. Now is one of those times. But in each of these moments, working people have reached into the darkness and reshaped our democracy.
No longer will we allow the Republican Party to be the one of ambition.
No longer will we have to open a history book to read about Democrats leading with big ideas.
My friends, the world is changing. It’s not a question of whether that change will come. It’s a question of who will change it.
We have an opportunity before us that few have ever received and even fewer have seized. It’s the opportunity to show the world what it means to win freedom. It is the opportunity to live up to the legacy left by those who came before.
We do not get to determine the scale of a crisis. Our choice is how we respond.
Let us win a city hall that works for those straining to buy groceries, not those straining to buy our democracy. And let us look forward to January 1, when the hard work of governing will begin.
Those in power would like to describe our policy commitments as if they are illusions that will evaporate as soon as we approach city hall. Let us show them instead that they are invocations of the future that we will win.
And let us prove to each and every New Yorker that a politics of expansion does not just mean imagination. It insists upon fulfillment. We can make city hall a place where New Yorkers come to expect the future, not just failure.
But we are not there yet. Just as Andrew Cuomo’s victory in the primary was thought to be inevitable, the same narrative has started to form around us today. When you read the articles that tell a postelection story of triumph while we are amidst early voting, when you see the odds that have our chances of victory in the nineties, know this: you are reading the same things that Andrew Cuomo read when he went to sleep each night in June, believing that his victory was promised. We cannot allow complacency to infiltrate this movement.We have an opportunity before us that few have ever received and even fewer have seized. It’s the opportunity to show the world what it means to win freedom.
So over these nine final days, I ask for only one thing from each of you: more.
I know you are tired, and for that I recommend some Adeni Chai. And still, I ask for more.
I know the attacks have intensified, that a warm bed is more inviting than a six-floor walk-up. That another evening spent knocking doors after a long workday feels daunting. And still, I ask for more. I ask for more because that is the only way that we win a future of more.
So if you are able, I urge you, my friends: stand up. If you have knocked a door, turn your flashlight on. [crowd begins turning phone flashlights on] If you will knock a door, turn your flashlight on. If you have more to give, turn your flashlight on. Together, let us make a light bright enough to banish any darkness.
Over these final nine days and the months and years that follow, the powers that be will throw everything in their arsenal against us. They will spend millions more dollars. They will attack us from every conceivable angle. But we will not bend. We will not flinch. We will triumph over the oligarchs, and we will return dignity to our lives.
Nearly eighty-nine years ago to the day, FDR spoke before a crowd of thousands at Madison Square Garden. He said, “I should like to have it said of my first administration that in it the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match. I should like to have it said of my second administration that in it, these forces met their master.”
My friends, I should like to have it said of our campaign that in it the forces of selfishness and lust for power met their match. And I should like to have it said of our city hall that in it these forces met their master.
New York, our work has only just begun. On November 4, we set ourselves free.
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Happening This Week October 27 – November 2Mon/Wed/Thu: Virginia Virtual Phonebanks (6:30pm ET) Three chances to help build a Democratic trifecta in VA by calling voters from homeTuesday: Fight Back with Friends Monthly Call (6:30pm ET) A call to onboard new FBWF participants and roll out a fresh way to mobilize your friends and familyWednesday: Virginia Phonebank Training (5pm ET) A virtual training and troubleshooting session to get volunteers ready to make calls into VirginiaThursday: “What’s the Plan?” with Leah + Ezra (3pm ET) An interactive weekly Q&A with our co-foundersSat/Sun: Virginia GOTV Call-A-Thon (all day) A weekend-long push to reach tens of thousands of VA voters — shifts available 9:30am-8pm ETOn the HorizonNovember 4: Election Day 2025
How does one fight illegal National Guard deployments, the kidnapping of immigrants, and creeping fascism? Well, if you’re a mainstream Democrat, there seems to be only one strategy – sternly-worded letters and weak press conferences.
At least, that’s how it seems to people like AOC’s former chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti, who is challenging former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her seat in Congress. He joins Mehdi on this week’s episode of ‘Mehdi Unfiltered.’
“She [Pelosi] has this style of politics that I think is completely out of step with what actually needs to happen today,” Chakrabarti tells Mehdi.
In this interview, Mehdi asks Chakrabarti – the co-founder of Justice Democrats – why he believes Pelosi’s response to Democrats’ loss last November was, “completely insufficient.”
Chakrabarti also takes aim at Democrats’ current House Leader Hakeem Jeffries, with Mehdi asking the former Hill staffer whether Jeffries needs a primary challenger.
“We’re not going to win unless we completely change who the party is,” Chakrabarti says.
Mehdi also presses him on his millionaire status, “Should that make people skeptical of you?”
Paid subscribers can watch the full interview to hear Chakrabarti explain why his other opponent Scott Weiner would be even worse for Palestinian rights and whether he is worried about AIPAC coming after him.
Free subscribers can watch a 5-minute preview. Consider upgrading and never hit a paywall again.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This conversation was taped before Hakeem Jeffries endorsed NYC Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani, and before Trump reversed his decision on sending the National Guard into San Francisco.
Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker joins demonstrators during the second “No Kings” protest on October 18, 2025 in Chicago.
(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
“Remember, these fascist freaks pardoned the actual people convicted of ‘seditious conspiracy’ while falsely accusing their opponents of this serious crime,” said one journalist.
Just over nine months after President Donald Trump returned to office and pardoned his supporters who stormed the US Capitol, one of the Republican’s top aides suggested that federal law enforcement may arrest Democrats standing up to the White House’s anti-migrant agenda, including Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.
Asked about the administration’s willingness and federal authority to arrest the Illinois leader on Fox News Friday, Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser, responded: “Well, the answer I’m about to give doesn’t only apply to Gov. Pritzker, it applies to any state official, any local official, anybody who’s operating in an official capacity who conspires or engages in activity that unlawfully impedes federal law enforcement conducting their duties.”
“So if you engage in a criminal conspiracy to obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration laws or to unlawfully order your own police officers or your own officials to try to interfere with ICE officers, or even to arrest ICE officers, you’re engaged in criminal activity,” he said, referring to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “Different types of crimes would apply. There is obstruction of justice. There is harboring illegal aliens. There is impeding the enforcement of our immigration laws.”
“And then, as you get up the scale of behavior, you obviously get into seditious conspiracy charges, depending on the conduct, and many other offenses. So again, it depends on the action. It depends on the conduct. It depends on what is taking place,” Miller continued. He went on to tell ICE officers that “you have federal immunity in the conduct of your duties.”
Both Miller’s threat toward Pritzker and other officials, and his immunity claim, were met with swift backlash, including from Zeteo‘s Mehdi Hasan, who highlighted Trump’s pardons for the January 6, 2021 insurrectionists.
“Remember, these fascist freaks pardoned the actual people convicted of ‘seditious conspiracy’ while falsely accusing their opponents of this serious crime,” the journalist wrote on social media. “(On a side note, arresting Pritzker would make him the most popular politician in America overnight.)”
Trump himself has called for jailing Pritzker and Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson “for failing to protect” ICE officers. Priztker, a billionaire and potential 2028 presidential candidate, has suggested Trump should be removed from office via the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution.
Miles Taylor, who served as Department of Homeland Security chief of staff during the first Trump administration and authored an infamous, anonymous 2018 New York Timeseditorial, said Friday, “Feels like we’re going down the rabbit hole pretty fast here, folks.”
California state Sen. Scott Weiner (D-11), one of the Democrats running for former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s seat in the next cycle, said: “They’re now explicitly taking the position that state and local elected officials are committing crimes when they attempt to protect their communities from the ICE secret police.”
Weiner‘s state Senate district includes San Francisco, one of the cities targeted by Trump with immigration agents, and a potential National Guard deployment. The president said he backed off the threat to send troops to the city, for now, after calls from billionaire friends.
However, Trump’s administration is still fighting in federal court to deploy the National Guard in the Chicagoland area, where ICE’s Operation Midway Blitz is underway. The people of Illinois have responded with persistent protests, including at an ICE facility in suburban Broadview, where agents have met demonstrations with violence.
“No, ICE officers do not have immunity to assault and arrest unarmed Americans without a warrant,” former Obama administration official and Pod Save America co-host Jon Favreau stressed on social media Friday.
Tufts University international politics professor Daniel Drezner similarly said, “This seems very disturbing and also wrong.”
Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) concluded: “Stephen Miller is the most evil, fascist, wannabe authoritarian in the Trump regime. And that’s saying something.”
Miller’s comments came just two days after Pritzker appeared on Fox News and discussed Trump’s attacks on him, immigration agents’ actions in Illinois, and the risk that Trump may try to use US troops to steal future elections.
Pritzker on Fox: "He's challenging the integrity of the next election by sending troops into our cities. That's what I believe this is about. It isn't about fighting crime. He said he's going after the worst of the worst. That's not what they're doing. They are literally after… pic.twitter.com/zoRHpgHPWg
The governor’s deputy chief of staff for communications, Matt Hill, responded to Miller’s remarks by pointing to that appearance.
“Holy crap. Gov. Pritzker did ONE interview on Fox, and Stephen Miller is freaking out,” Hill said on social media with a snowflake emoji. “All the Gov. did was appoint experts to collect videos and testimony of what’s happening in Chicago. Now, Miller is threatening to silence Illinoisans and arrest their governor.”
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Milk Club Trans Caucus Meeting Date: Tuesday, April 28 Time: 5-7 PM Location and Zoom Link: Meeting info available to members of the Milk Club Trans Caucus. Please reach out to trans@milkclub.org if you would like to join the Milk Club Trans Caucus.
