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Zohran Mamdani: A ‘nepo baby’ in the belly of the beast

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According to New York Mayor Eric Adams, who is under investigation for bribery allegations with ties to Türkiye, the next election to determine the city’s leader would be between a “blue-collar” candidate and another candidate “in a suit and with a silver spoon.”

Adams’s “blue-collar” candidate was, of course, himself. The candidate born with a silver spoon in his mouth was (surprise!) Zohran Mamdani.

Who would have thought… The frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for Mayor of New York is Zohran Mamdani—a “democratic socialist” of Indian descent whose ancestors were followers of “Twelver Shia Islam.”

Mamdani, who has gained prominence with a platform including free public transport, a solution to the housing crisis, and the “denunciation of Israel,” became known in connection with the term “nepo baby,” which entered the American public discourse—thanks to Hollywood stars—with a December 2022 issue of New York Magazine.

What is a nepo baby? To say “he was born on a blessed night” [a Turkish idiom for being extremely lucky] wouldn’t be enough. It’s a term used for relatively wealthy/upper-crust celebrities who were born into privilege, with a silver spoon in their mouth, and have risen in the profession of their parents or ancestors.

City&State New York, likely envious of the nepo baby list made for the West Coast, prepared one for the East Coast (New York). The date was December 20, 2022. The list included former Governor Andrew Cuomo (whose father was also a former governor) and Andrew Giuliani, known as Trump’s lawyer (his father, too, was a former mayor).

Mamdani made it onto this list back at the end of 2022. He is introduced as follows:

“His mother is the Oscar-nominated director Mira Nair. She may not have directly helped Mamdani enter politics, but she might have had some influence on his short-lived rap career.”

Mamdani’s mother, Mira Nair, has directed films such as “Salaam Bombay!”, “Mississippi Masala,” and “Monsoon Wedding.” His father, Mahmood Mamdani, is a renowned professor in the fields of international relations and anthropology.

In 2013, Nair was invited to a film festival in Israel but announced on social media that she would not go to the country “until the apartheid ends.”

Mahmood Mamdani, for his part, held informational meetings at the encampments set up at Columbia last year to protest the occupation in Gaza and criticized the university’s response to the protests.

Mahmood Mamdani is a prominent figure in the field of postcolonialism at Columbia. His academic work addresses topics such as the legacy of colonialism in Africa. As Aijaz Ahmad, who penned an excellent critique on the subject, puts it, the widespread “postcolonial” studies in the West offer a golden opportunity for members or children of the ruling classes in the colonial world to establish themselves in the West, especially in Western academia.

Nair’s career is also peculiar. She met Mahmood in Uganda, where Zohran was also born. The director was doing research for her film “Mississippi Masala.” But, according to what she told The New York Times, producers who wanted a “white hero” in her film were unwilling to provide funding.

Somehow, though, Nair eventually found “a few million dollars” and began shooting the film in Uganda, with the famous actor Denzel Washington in the lead role.

Don’t underestimate Nair’s position: Warner Bros. offered our director the chance to direct Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, but Nair turned it down because she was filming The Namesake, adapted from Jhumpa Lahiri’s bestselling novel of the same name.

***

Family isn’t everything, but it is important. “Colored” property owners from the former colonies of the British Empire have no trouble joining the Western ruling class aristocracy.

Prabhat Patnaik, India’s diligent Marxist, analyzes the phenomenon of these “Third World” leaders rising to prominence in imperialist countries as a “tendency toward the formation of an international middle class.” I quote at length:

“This phenomenon [the rise of politicians or businesspeople from the Third World – author’s note] not only creates an opportunity to emphasize how ‘fair’ the countries in question where they grew up are, but it also helps convince people from the middle classes in Third World countries that they will receive ‘equal treatment’ in these metropolises, and consequently, that the world has a ‘just’ order and that the country of one’s birth is irrelevant to success. One of the problems that people from the middle classes in the colonies used to face was that they were subjected to discrimination in their own countries under colonial administration and could never rise beyond a certain point in official positions. This experience made the middle class feel that they had to overthrow the colonial yoke. In contrast, the current experiences of the present-day Third World middle class convince them that such discrimination no longer exists and, therefore, that the phenomenon of imperialism itself is no longer valid.”

This brings us closer to a Nietzschean ideal of an “intermingled, (aristocratic) ruling class that disregards national borders.” There are also those, like Homi Kharas, who affirm this by calling it the “global middle class.” This “global middle class” has an ideological package that will save our planet: It will combat global warming; it will steer global capital markets and corporations toward “sustainability”…

Beyond that, confirming Patnaik’s thesis, they also “don’t believe” in imperialism. It is constantly underlined that Mamdani’s wife, the Damascus-born artist Rama Duwaji, is “Syrian.” In Duwaji’s biography, we see that she has worked with The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Apple, Spotify, VICE, the BBC, and Tate Modern. A US-based campaign account close to Iran and Hezbollah writes that Duwaji supported the foreign-backed rebellion against the Bashar al-Assad government and that Mamdani is “controlled opposition.” The picture is complete.

***

Just because a person is born with a silver spoon in their mouth doesn’t mean they have to embrace their “class.” History is full of examples.

But Mamdani is not among them.

It seems this is the case, as a New York Times investigation into who he gets his votes from in New York is the kind of news that would soothe the heart of a Wall Street said to be trembling in fear.

The NYT writes that Mamdani pulled ahead thanks to increased turnout in gentrifying neighborhoods and strong support from Asian and Hispanic communities.

“Democratic socialist” Mamdani secured high vote shares in Brooklyn’s affluent “brownstone” neighborhoods, in the diverse neighborhoods of Upper Manhattan, and in areas of Queens with large South Asian populations.

I would like to remind you that brownstone houses in New York are expensive: one of the main reasons these homes are so costly is simply their rarity. The number of these houses is limited, and it’s not possible to build more.

Quoting again from the NYT investigation: Mamdani, who promises to solve New York’s economic crisis, performed better than his rivals in predominantly college-educated districts and in middle- and high-income neighborhoods. Mamdani won in most of the majority-Asian districts and narrowly beat his main rival, Cuomo, in majority-Hispanic districts.

An interesting data point: Cuomo received more support in majority-Black districts and in low-income districts. Mamdani, however, struggled to win over older, wealthier voters, a significant portion of whom are Jewish, on Manhattan’s Upper West and East Sides.

I quote directly from the NYT investigation:

“Mamdani, who would be the city’s first Muslim and South Asian mayor, received his highest vote share in gentrifying neighborhoods with young, left-leaning voters, like Ridgewood in Queens and Greenpoint in Brooklyn. Voters in Jamaica Hills, a Queens neighborhood with a large South Asian population, also preferred Mr. Mamdani by a wide margin.”

The research shows that the majority of high- and middle-income New Yorkers voted for Mamdani. Nearly half of the low-income population, however, voted for Cuomo.

***

It is known that there is a search for restructuring within the Democratic Party following the disappearance of Joe Biden and the defeat of Kamala Harris.

Saikat Chakrabarti, a former adviser to New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of Mamdani’s most important supporters, has rolled up his sleeves to unseat Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco.

The Texas-born Chakrabarti, a Silicon Valley veteran of Indian descent, is a perfect fit for the “nepo baby” class. This software engineer-turned-activist is known for his goals of a “Green New Deal” and a “New New Deal.” In his manifesto titled “A Mission for America,” he complains about the bureaucracy against nuclear energy and calls on the military to normalize nuclear power in the public eye, wears a t-shirt featuring a photo of Subhas Chandra Bose, a Hindu nationalist known for his sympathy for the Nazis, and was part of the “progressive” group “Justice Democrats.”

Chakrabarti was fired from the AOC campaign, but his platform is being adopted wholesale. According to a report on NPR in April, a young generation, including the Silicon Valley veteran, was poised to become the “new AOCs.” This younger generation, advocating for a more “aggressive” stance against Trump, was deeply dissatisfied with the old Democrats.

It’s not hard to see that Mamdani is also playing to this crowd. After his initial success, Mamdani’s campaign team is looking for ways to appeal to the “general public.” Mamdani, who once advocated for defunding the police, now appears to have backed away from that position.

It is claimed that corporations are prepared to spend $20 billion to defeat Mamdani. Mamdani’s campaign, however, believes they can quickly raise an initial $8 billion. Pro-Mamdani super PACs face no limits on how much money they can raise, and the group “New Yorkers for Lower Costs” raised $1.5 million in the primaries.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) writes even more. It suggests that the broad support for Mamdani reveals how Wall Street has changed in recent years, stating:

“Mr. Mamdani received more individual donations from the big banks than Mr. Cuomo did, according to city campaign-finance records that list donors’ employers. But they were mostly among the growing ranks of tech staff and other nonfinance workers. Three Goldman Sachs software engineers, for example, were listed as giving directly to Mr. Mamdani. Only one financier at Goldman gave directly to Mr. Cuomo, records show.”

Furthermore, the WSJ reports that other bankers who quietly support Mamdani did not want to speak “on the record,” and one even tried to use a “fake name.”

According to POLITICO, following his primary victory, Mamdani met privately with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Both are “establishment” New York Democrats.

The two leaders did not immediately give Mamdani their full endorsement, but they made positive comments about him on the social media site X and said they planned to meet with him in person soon.

A person close to Mamdani, speaking on condition of anonymity, described these statements as a “positive green light” and said the team was “very, very hopeful” about what they had accomplished in the short time since the primaries.

Also, Mamdani was called to the stage on Tuesday night by New York Attorney General Letitia James. James is one of the state’s most beloved and influential Democrats, known for her legal battles with President Donald Trump.

America

Independent candidate Diane Sare decries US complicity in global wars

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Independent US presidential candidate and Schiller Institute associate Diane Sare has delivered a wide-ranging critique of contemporary American governance, warning that US foreign policy has been captured by an elite billionaire donor class, subservient to foreign lobbies, and dangerously disconnected from the economic realities facing ordinary citizens. Speaking in an in-depth interview with international relations specialist Professor Dr Hasan Ünal on his Strategic Compass programme, broadcast on the Harici digital platform, Sare argued that the United States is accelerating towards catastrophic regional conflicts and structural domestic decline due to a bipartisan consensus that has betrayed the electorate.

Opening the discussion, Professor Dr Ünal highlighted the glaring contradictions surrounding the administration of Donald Trump, who campaigned aggressively on a mandate to terminate endless foreign wars that have severely drained American economic resources. Ünal questioned how an administration that promised swift diplomatic resolutions to conflicts such as the Ukraine war and disengagement from Middle Eastern entanglements could instead find itself drawn into deeper confrontation, particularly with Iran. Ünal noted that Trump had assured voters he would bring public funds back home to rebuild domestic infrastructure, yet the reality on the ground has sharply diverged from those campaign commitments.

“Trump has betrayed the trust that people placed in him”

In response, Sare affirmed that a substantial contradiction defines Trump’s governance and that political support for the president is deteriorating rapidly across the country. Sare, “Well, no, obviously there is a contradiction and Trump is losing support very, very rapidly,” observed, pointing directly to grassroots electoral shifts in key swing states. “I saw a study in Michigan that six out of 10 Trump voters would vote for Abdul Sayed in the US Senate race, not the Trump-endorsed Republican candidate,” she stated, adding: “So, he has betrayed the trust that people placed in him, and I would not say it was profound trust. I think that Americans feel they have been burned repeatedly, actually. And therefore, Trump frankly faced the vulnerability that I think he was not really aware of and not the people around him, which is that the trust in him would evaporate very quickly. And that is what has happened.”

To explain how this disconnect arose, Sare cited the analytical framework of the late political figure Lyndon LaRouche, recalling conversations during Trump’s first presidential term. When supporters questioned why a candidate who campaigned on reinstating the Glass-Steagall Act would immediately appoint former Goldman Sachs partner Steven Mnuchin to head the Department of the Treasury, LaRouche provided a blunt explanation. Sare, “LaRouche said he thinks like a businessman or real wheeler-dealer,” noted. “So, the guy raised a lot of money for his campaign, so he gives him a post. And then someone who raises a lot of money says, ‘Well, you got to bring on John Bolton.’ All right, well, John Bolton was a horrible saboteur neocon who sabotaged what might have been the end of the Korean War in Trump’s first term. It looked like things were moving that way.”

According to Sare, this transactional approach has subordinated national strategy to an insular, ultra-wealthy elite that operates above traditional democratic structures. Sare, “So, I think what you have is the class of billionaires who are calling the shots,” emphasized, identifying prominent venture capitalists and financiers as key gatekeepers. “It has come to my attention that Peter Thiel, one of the notorious members of this class, was literally doing the vetting of Trump appointees for Trump to his administration,” she stated. “So, I think this is how the policy has gone so far awry. And unfortunately, when people are born into this class, they never had to work; they do not understand how things work, like how does the food get from the farm to your table, and how does the farmer get the fertilizer to grow the food? These things mean nothing to them, so their policy, frankly, has been reckless even to the point of detonating perhaps the entire transatlantic economy. That is going to be the result of the policies that Trump himself has become the purveyor of.”

“Both parties have betrayed the people”

When Professor Dr Ünal pressed further into the mechanics of the US political architecture, asking how massive campaign contributions and foreign influence groups can dictate terms under the guise of democratic elections, Sare asserted that the systemic decay has created an unprecedented political awakening. “We have seen it with the Israeli lobby, too,” she remarked, indicating that public frustration is reaching a boiling point. “I do think we are in a bit of a revolutionary period because of what I said earlier: the American voters feel very much betrayed.”

Sare pointed out that institutional complacency is blinding established political machines to this voter revolt. Recounting her recent participation in a national convention of independent candidates, she expressed astonishment that as many as seven independent candidates for the US House of Representatives and the US Senate are currently polling ahead of their major-party rivals, creating real possibilities of unseating entrenched Democrats or Republicans. Sare, “This is unheard of,” noted, rebuking the Democratic Party leadership for misjudging the popular mood. “The Democrats made a big mistake because they are very arrogant. And we remember Hillary Clinton could not imagine that she would lose the election in 2016. She thought she was so great, but voters rejected that. So, the Democrats have not learned anything. They think they can just sit there, complain about Trump, and they will be the beneficiaries of the people leaving Trump. But Americans are getting wiser.”

Sare identified current Middle East policy as a primary catalyst for this bipartisan disillusionment. “For example, over the Iran war, 70% or so of the American people are against this war,” she stated. “We do not know why we are in it. It serves no purpose. Iran never attacked us, and it is costing us a lot of money. And then others who know the kind of crimes that are being committed, like the attack on the girls’ school in Minab, know we do not want it.”

Crucially, Sare insisted that primary culpability cannot be pinned entirely on the executive branch or foreign leaders alone. Sare, “Of course, you can blame the war on Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, but the US Congress has the power of the purse,” stressed, recalling the legislative actions that concluded past American interventions. “The Vietnam War was ended when the Congress stopped funding it. So, we know that the Democrats could have stopped the funding of this war. There was a War Powers Resolution maybe a month and a half ago, and the Democrats, Gregory Meeks and Hakeem Jeffries, would not allow the vote to go to the floor. It could have been a winning vote. So, it means that both parties have betrayed the people.”

Addressing the broader dynamics of oligarchic influence over the two-party system, Sare explained how big money hedges its bets: “Of course, if I were a billionaire and I wanted to control the outcome, I would give money to both parties. You do not put all your eggs in one basket. You want everyone who is elected to feel that they are beholden to you.” Nevertheless, she argued that the traditional monopoly is cracking: “I think Americans are wising up to this. I think what we are going to see is that candidates who are not with either party or who are considered mavericks, who in the past would not have even gotten 1% or 2% of the vote, are going to suddenly be very close to winning seats or even winning. It is a very, very different situation where everything is in flux.”

“I don’t see a third party; what I see is the same class money trying to capture the independent movement”

Responding to Ünal’s question about whether the collapse of public trust among voters, particularly disillusioned working-class Make America Great Again supporters, could coalesce into a viable third political party, Sare expressed deep scepticism towards conventional party structures. Sare, “I do not see a third party,” stated directly. “What I see is the same class money trying to capture the independent movement. Like there is Joe Manchin, this former US senator who was a Democrat that often voted with the Republicans. He is pretending to create an independent movement, but he is up in Maine campaigning for Susan Collins, a Republican senator. So, it is kind of a fraud. And I think a lot of people who are truly independent like myself, who are peace candidates, do not want to be part of this.”

Instead of adding another partisan entity to the ballot, Sare advocated transcending the party framework altogether, invoking the constitutional warnings of America’s first president. Sare, “I would much prefer really that we get rid of the party system,” asserted. “Our first president, George Washington, warned about it very much in his Farewell Address. He said when you get parties, then you are going to have tribalism: ‘my team, your team’. And suddenly everyone is more interested in the team than the principle or the good of the nation or the people. So, I do not know that a third party would actually solve anything. I think we have to really have a new system that does not rely on parties in that way.”

Addressing systemic impediments to open political discourse, including monopolistic control over communication channels, Sare highlighted corporate media and technological censorship. “It is so hard to know because we are suffering so much under censorship also here,” she remarked. “Is there anything Larry Ellison does not own? Or maybe his ownership stops where Jeff Bezos’ ownership begins?” Despite these hurdles, Sare noted that institutional reforms such as ranked-choice voting and open non-partisan primaries could allow genuine non-affiliated representatives to emerge: “Were there to be allowed to be a natural process, people are moving toward things like ranked-choice voting or open primaries where people do not vote by party and it is the top two or top three vote-getters. So, I do find it conceivable that we could get away from a party system.”

“They want to destroy sovereignty; they want to make countries ungovernable”

Examining domestic stability, Professor Dr Ünal drew parallels with widespread civil unrest and street demonstrations across Europe, notably in France, asking if comparable mass upheaval could erupt across the United States. Sare expressed doubt that unrest would manifest through identical patterns, citing American political traditions that channel dissent primarily into electoral cycles.

However, Sare expressed serious concern regarding heightened state vulnerability, political manipulation, and potential provocations designed to derail the democratic process. Citing concerns raised by international Schiller Institute leader Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Sare questioned whether an engineered domestic or foreign crisis might emerge as an October surprise. Sare, “People in this country are asking whether there would be something to create a pretext to disrupt the elections or postpone them or cancel them,” warned. “I do not think that that will occur, but I think we are in a period of great instability.”

To illustrate how deep-state institutions manage public unrest, Sare referenced admissions made by former Italian Prime Minister and interior minister Francesco Cossiga regarding the deliberate deployment of provocateurs to justify draconian police action. Sare, “We were reminded of the interview given by Cossiga in 2008, where he gave a description of what seems to be happening in France and other places,” noted. “He said what you want to do to get control of mass unrest is send in the provocateurs, let people burn everything down for about 10 days, and then you do not want to jail people, you want to beat them, basically. He said you want the ambulances to drown out the police. So, let everything get crazy, and then the population will support harsh, violent suppression of the protest, and that is how you get control, which is pretty sick.”

Sare linked these domestic tactics to broader intelligence operations aimed at eroding national independence. “We know that in France the police have been extremely brutal; young people have lost eyes and hands, and I am sure there are provocateurs as well,” she argued. “I do not doubt that the conglomerate, the blob of the CIA, MI6, and Mossad, as I call it, has a hand, because they are run by these billionaires. They want to destroy sovereignty. They want to make countries ungovernable. And I think we are seeing that unfold, and we really need a higher principle.”

“We are not supposed to be the club whereby some colonial legacy bludgeons the world into submission”

Turning to specific foreign policy trajectories, Professor Dr Ünal pressed Sare on Trump’s actions in West Asia, notably the aggression directed against Iran and total alignment with Israeli strategic objectives. Ünal pointed out that this belligerent posture stood in stark contrast to Trump’s promises of peace, questioning why Washington consistently succumbed to provocative maneuvers designed to trap the US military in catastrophic regional conflicts.

Sare did not mince words regarding Washington’s failure to exercise its diplomatic leverage over Israel. Sare, “I think that the United States is powerful enough that we could insist that Bibi Netanyahu stop the genocide in Gaza,” declared. “And we could have insisted that he not do his assassination spree against Iran and the occupation of Lebanon and all of his other adventures. But the United States chose not to do that, probably because of the influence of these networks.”

Addressing persistent public speculation regarding compromising material that may influence top officials, Sare expressed revulsion at the institutional refusal to prosecute high-level actors implicated in legal scandals. Sare, “People hypothesize that there may be something in the Epstein files about President Trump; that is definitely a possibility,” remarked. “I have to say I am a little disgusted by the idea that we have released three million of these files and nobody has been indicted. We have people like Howard Lutnick, who is a real problem, and he has not been thrown out of the administration.”

For Sare, this moral paralysis exposes a fundamental betrayal of American constitutional identity. “The United States really has to reflect on what is the mission of our republic,” she stated. “We are not fulfilling it. We are not supposed to be the tool, the club whereby some colonial legacy bludgeons the world into submission. And I think perhaps even more than this pro-Zionist element was the fatal decision when the Berlin Wall came down, where some of these neocons decided that the United States was the global hegemon. That is so opposed to the whole principle of our founding against colonialism. Once you decide that, then everything after that will be a wrong policy.”

“All 18 of the US intelligence agencies told him Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz”

As the dialogue shifted to the acute perils of direct military confrontation with Iran, Professor Dr Ünal noted that seasoned military experts had warned that Iran represented an adversary far more formidable than any the US had faced since the Second World War. Ünal queried how Washington decision-makers planned to extricate themselves from a strategic impasse of their own making.

Sare warned that rather than seeking a responsible diplomatic off-ramp, figures inside the US national security establishment are contemplating catastrophic escalation. Sare, “A friend of mine, Colonel Douglas Macgregor, just wrote a piece saying he is afraid there is a discussion of using a tactical nuclear weapon,” revealed. “We know Elbridge Colby had brought that up some months ago. And what Macgregor said is that Trump is now so boxed in. The Middle East war is not going the way he wanted; the Ukraine-Russia situation is not; the midterm elections do not look so good. Would he, in desperation, do this thing? And we hear them talking about the MOAB, the mother of all bombs, or whatever it stands for, massive ordnance.”

Dismissing delusions of easy military dominance, Sare pointed to recent American operational setbacks: “Iran has been preparing. Look, we did not win in Afghanistan. We were defeated by the Houthis not so long ago, a year ago, in Bab al-Mandab. So, the idea of defeating Iran is really sick.”

Furthermore, Sare voiced alarm over Trump’s personal capacity and susceptibility to foreign manipulation. Sare, “I also think there is a factor that Trump is aging; I think he is not sharp,” observed. “He has been making some peculiar kinds of comments lately that indicate perhaps some kind of dementia setting in. And apparently, they do not want people around him who disagree with him. He will not hear anyone who tells him, ‘No, that is not true.'”

Sare underlined that this belligerent trajectory was pursued in direct defiance of professional intelligence assessments. “Just as Joe Kent said, all 18 of the US intelligence agencies told him Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz,” she stated. “They were not building a nuclear bomb. Our intelligence agencies did not mislead President Trump, at least that is what Kent says. But some other factor, the Israelis most likely, somehow persuaded him to launch this illegal war of aggression, which is not going the way that he was told it was going to go.”

When Ünal asked how the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and associated lobby groups would navigate mounting public outrage over foreign wars, Sare indicated that their historic grip on Capitol Hill is eroding. “Now even many pro-Israel candidates do not want to accept money from AIPAC because they know it will make them look bad,” she noted. “They are losing their power. I had said that instead of the Congress being 99% controlled by AIPAC, it may go down to 82% controlled by AIPAC. They are going to take a hit. Ultimately, they are not going to be dictating the policy in the US anymore at all.”

Sare cautioned that an escalation against Iran prior to the midterm elections would be politically disastrous for the administration, explaining why reports suggest any high-risk military actions might be postponed until after voting concludes. Citing observations from former Trump attorney Robert Barnes, Sare noted that outside of hard-core bases like Florida, Trump’s personal campaign appearances are actively depressing polling numbers for his endorsed candidates: “Every time he shows up to speak, the ratings of his endorsed candidates go down. So, his travels are causing a net loss.”

“It’s worse than insider trading because you’re putting the fate of billions of people on your ability to make money”

Looking ahead to the post-midterm political landscape, Professor Dr Ünal raised the prospect of congressional investigations, impeachment proceedings, and allegations of personal financial corruption tied to military crises. Ünal noted pervasive public speculation that members of Trump’s inner circle, including family members, have profited from market volatility sparked by late-night presidential statements on military action, moving global stock indices and oil benchmarks in places like Rotterdam.

Sare confirmed that such practices constitute egregious abuses of executive authority that fully meet the constitutional standard for removal from office. Sare, “I know that some people were actually looking at the trading, because various anonymous sources seemed to be placing bets on certain political outcomes which then happened, and they would make a lot of money,” stated. “Obviously, that is an impeachable offense. It is worse than insider trading, because you are putting the fate of billions of people on your ability to make money. I think Jared Kushner is a big one to look at in this. He is a huge vulnerability to the Trump administration, and of course, Trump himself. He posts one thing on Friday night, and quickly before the markets open Monday morning, then he says something else. And absolutely, this is certainly one of the many impeachable offenses.”

However, Sare cautioned that partisan impeachment battles led by establishment Democrats often distract from deeper structural imperatives. While acknowledging that Trump has committed impeachable offenses, Sare argued that fixation on personalities obscures institutional continuity. “What concerns me again is that the thinking of people is at such a low level, because I see these Democrats who are just rabidly anti-Trump,” she said. “We have had actually a continuity of policy no matter which party was president since September 11th, 2001. We have been marching closer and closer and closer to nuclear war. It was Barack Obama who presided over the overthrow of the Ukrainian government in 2013-2014, and then Joe Biden. When people obsess about a particular individual, at this point they are avoiding their own responsibility. I am not interested in punishment or being right; I am interested in the United States dramatically changing course to make sure that the world does not plunge over an abyss from which there is no return.”

“This war really has nothing to do with principle; it’s this defense contracting Wall Street bubble making money”

Turning to the conflict in Ukraine, Professor Dr Ünal noted that while Trump frequently expressed a desire to halt hostilities, contradictory reports persist indicating that behind-the-scenes arrangements involving corporate investments in Russian energy assets are motivating executive actions. Ünal also criticized European leaders, such as Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, for adopting aggressive stances toward Moscow despite possessing negligible independent military capacity.

Sare agreed that financial motives permeate the conflict, emphasizing that rhetoric surrounding territorial integrity masks predatory economic interests. “I suspect there is a great deal of truth to what you are saying, that there are deals behind the scenes,” Sare remarked. “If Trump felt so strongly that this war would not have happened under his watch, he should have done more to end it sooner, and of course he has not. I think that perhaps the motivation for wanting it to come to an end now is that we are a bit overextended. There is a great deal of economic damage being done by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and frankly, getting diesel from the Russian markets does not really make a dent in that, but you can use it to build confidence, get the markets to go up, and make some money.”

Sare condemned politicians who obstruct diplomatic realism, criticizing House figures such as Gregory Meeks for attacking the relaxation of sanctions. Sare, “We really need an even-handed policy which is rooted in principles of natural law, of respect for sovereignty of other nations,” maintained. “I know President Vladimir Putin has said on multiple occasions we need an entirely new security architecture, and of course that has been Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s position and mine. At this point, there is no crisis on the planet that we are going to solve pairwise. Russia and Ukraine is not about Russia and Ukraine. Israel and Palestine is not about Israel and Palestine. Unless you come up with regional agreements where there is a mutual benefit for every nation involved, we are not going to be able to end these conflicts.”

Sare expressed deep scepticism that European officials hold any meaningful sway over the conflict’s outcome, predicting instead that Moscow will continue to determine realities on the battlefield unless Western leaders genuinely embrace negotiated settlements: “I do not think the European leaders are that relevant. I do not think the American administration has really earned the trust of anyone, because they keep flip-flopping. So, it may be the case that the war just grinds on and that Russia solves it on the battlefield, as they have been saying. Russia, if anything, has been completely consistent from prior to the beginning of the special military operation regarding what their concerns were and what their interests were.”

The commodification of the conflict, Sare noted, was epitomized by long-term procurement announcements. Sare, “When I heard that Ukraine, now several months ago, announced they were going to be buying some airplanes from Sweden that were not even going to be manufactured until 2029, then you realize this war really has nothing to do with principle,” stressed. “It is this defense contracting Wall Street bubble making money over the misery and suffering of millions of people.” Professor Dr Ünal concurred, observing that American arms manufacturers book immense backlogs of contracts from foreign states without possessing the industrial capacity to fulfill production schedules in a timely manner.

“The fact that every time it rains you have floods and power outages, it’s almost like we are the third-world country”

In the concluding segment of the broadcast, Professor Dr Ünal and Diane Sare evaluated the precipitous collapse of the United States’ international moral standing and the visible deterioration of its domestic infrastructure. Ünal noted that global respect for Washington has been on a sustained downward trajectory for decades, a decline that has visibly accelerated in recent years.

Sare observed that the moral capital accumulated by earlier visionary American leaders has been squandered. Sare, “We had a reservoir of goodwill from some of our better presidents, from Franklin Roosevelt, from John F. Kennedy, even going back to Abraham Lincoln or John Quincy Adams: ‘seek not abroad for monsters to destroy,'” reflected. “There was a principle that people admired and loved us. Sukarno at the Bandung Conference said that the whole movement against colonialism was inspired by the American War of Independence.”

That historical legacy, Sare argued, has been supplanted by complicity in atrocities broadcast worldwide: “And now everyone watches our country aiding and abetting a genocide, which is on everybody’s screen in Gaza.”

Simultaneously, Sare described a severe internal decay that disillusions visitors and citizens alike. Sare, “People have traveled here and they see the condition of our cities,” stated. “The fact that you can lose half of your car in a pothole in New York City; the fact that every time it rains you have floods and power outages, it is almost like we are the third-world country, the banana republic, in a sense.”

Sare expressed sorrow that domestic propaganda shields large sections of the American electorate from recognizing how far national conditions have fallen relative to global peers. “Too many Americans, particularly those who still support President Trump, do not know anything about the rest of the world,” she said. “They will actually tell you that our nation is the best, the standard of living here is the best, that we have freedom. Anyone who has traveled in the world is blown away by the infrastructure, the cleanliness of cities in Russia, in China, and other places, the fact that you have high-speed rail in different places.”

This blindness, Sare concluded, is reinforced by an arrogant imperial doctrine in Washington that mirrors despotic history. Sare, “If you believe that might makes right, you do not really care about how you look to people,” warned. “It does not matter to you if they think you are corrupt and rotten as long as they are scared of you. That was Caligula: ‘Let them hate me, but let them fear me.’ And I am afraid that that is more the dynamic among some in our policy-making areas.”

Closing the dialogue, Sare issued an appeal for international collaboration based on shared humanity rather than geopolitical domination. “Given the rate of the crisis, my chances are only going to increase,” Sare said of her independent presidential campaign. “I really want to extend a hand to the people of the world, because I think as human beings we have universal principles and a universal identity that really makes it much more natural for us to find areas of common interest and collaborate. I am looking forward to the day that mankind grows up, and we do a better job of that.”

Professor Dr Ünal concluded the program by wishing Sare success in her campaign, expressing hope that American voters weary of continuous domestic crises, crumbling infrastructure, and compromised two-party politics will seek principled alternatives capable of restoring foundational national ideals.

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America

Democrats target Trump-Putin Russian diesel deal with legal push

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An understanding reached between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on diesel shipments has run into fierce legal and political resistance in Washington.

Leading figures in the Democratic Party have mobilised to take the deal to court and subject it to congressional investigations.

According to an official letter obtained by the news website Axios, Democrats will make scrutinising this accord with Moscow one of their primary objectives if they win a majority in one or both chambers of Congress after the elections.

The letter drafted by members of Congress stressed that bringing Russian-origin diesel into the US raises serious legal questions and could become the focus of both judicial proceedings and congressional inquiries.

Figures holding critical positions are behind the initiative. Democratic Senators Chris Coons, Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden, and Sheldon Whitehouse, who signed the document, are in line to assume the chairs of the Foreign Relations, Banking, Finance, and Judiciary committees, respectively, if their party wins a majority in the Senate.

Democratic Representative Gregory Meeks, a candidate to lead the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, and Republican Senator Thom Tillis also signed the call.

The formal warning letter was sent directly to the core of the financial and logistics sectors.

The list of recipients includes six of the largest US financial institutions: JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley. The letter was also delivered to port authorities in Houston, Beaumont, and Corpus Christi in Texas, as well as the port authorities of New York and New Jersey.

Addressing these institutions, the lawmakers asked them not to participate in the purchase, transport, importation, unloading, storage, financing, or distribution of Russian diesel within US borders.

The call also requested that they refrain from brokering the transit of Russian diesel to third markets under the latest exemption introduced to the sanctions regime.

The senators asked banks and port officials to preserve contracts, shipping records, vessel data, and all communications conducted with suppliers, intermediaries, and US government authorities.

A deadline of 28 October was set to confirm that these records of suspected or completed transactions are being retained and to share information regarding potential operations.

The authors of the letter share the view that these steps to procure Russian fuel conflict with the 2022 US federal statute banning imports of Russian oil, natural gas, and refined petroleum products.

They further argue that these shipments generate additional revenue for the Moscow government, which poses a clear threat to US national security.

White House issues licence, shipments begin

Donald Trump announced on 9 October that he had reached an agreement with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to deliver Russian diesel to the US and world markets.

The plan established a phased schedule: Russia would send more than 300,000 tonnes of fuel in the initial phase, followed by a new shipment of 500,000 tonnes in November, after which deliveries would reach 1 million tonnes.

To clear the way for the agreement, the US Department of the Treasury issued General Licence 135.

This licence brings transactions involving Russian diesel and its importation into the US under legal authorization until 7 April 2027.

The Moscow side accelerated its domestic regulatory adjustments following the agreement, with the Russian government partially lifting its ban on diesel exports.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a statement on 23 October that shipments under the arrangement with the US had effectively begun and would continue.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak announced that his country is prepared to send any requested amount of fuel to the US from its diesel reserves allocated for export.

However, this traffic between the White House and Moscow has also unsettled some Republicans in Congress.

Indeed, on 23 October, a bill was introduced in the US Congress to revoke General Licence 135 issued by the Treasury Department and to bar similar exemptions from being granted in the future.

Republican Representative Brian Fitzpatrick, who drafted the bill, proposed restricting the Treasury Department’s authority to approve transactions involving Russian energy resources.

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US mission hosts anti-Cuba figures with terror links at UN event

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Footage circulating on social media has revealed that individuals with documented records of direct involvement in terrorist acts and violent crimes attended an event hosted by the US Permanent Mission to the United Nations.

The gathering took place just days before the United Nations General Assembly was scheduled to vote on a draft Cuban resolution demanding the lifting of the economic and financial embargo imposed by the US.

The meeting was held immediately on the eve of the vote on the draft resolution, which was planned for 29 October.

Multiple video recordings shared across social media platforms show guests at the event being confronted directly by attendees on site, who called out their individual links to acts of terrorism targeting the Cuban people.

Foremost among those documented as having attended the event was José Daniel Ferrer García.

Ferrer García’s criminal record encompasses theft, gender-based violence, and physical assaults on public officials committed inside Cuban territory.

Continuing his activities after reaching US soil, Ferrer García openly incited Cubans to acts of violence from abroad and issued explicit calls for direct US military intervention on the island.

Another guest at the meeting, Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat, is known as a figure who has directly financed, encouraged, and systematically supported acts of violence inside Cuban territory.

Armando Valladares, a former US representative to the UN Commission on Human Rights, had previously accused Gutiérrez Boronat of defrauding the US government itself out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Like Ferrer García, Gutiérrez Boronat advocates a US military invasion of Cuba. Furthermore, he openly conducts propaganda calling for direct terrorist acts against Cuban state officials and diplomats.

Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who was also seen among the invited guests, is an individual who has taken part in subversive activities aimed at undermining domestic order, public security, and stability in Cuba.

While still on Cuban territory, Otero Alcántara maintained uninterrupted contact with the US and received regular funding from there; his departure from the island and resettlement in the US were organised directly by the US government.

Another figure at the event was María del Carmen Cañizares Werlau, who leads a campaign directly targeting Cuba’s international health solidarity initiatives and its healthcare system.

Werlau receives direct funding from US official bodies through Archivo Cuba, the organisation she heads.

The campaign conducted by Werlau is anchored in calls for severe economic sanctions against all third countries that accept Cuban doctors, healthcare personnel, or any form of medical cooperation.

The gathering of all these individuals at the US mission took place as the international community prepared to vote on the long-standing demand to lift the decades-old embargo.

Critics of the event stated that the US hosting such figures completely invalidates the human rights rhetoric continually invoked by the Washington administration.

They emphasized that the episode unequivocally exposes the hypocrisy and contradictions embedded in US policy towards Cuba.

Cuban envoy Soberón Guzmán: “You will not break an embargoed people’s will”

Cuba’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ernesto Soberón Guzmán, issued a statement immediately exposing the initiative organised by the US Permanent Mission inside the UN headquarters.

Soberón Guzmán announced that the US Mission had organised a fraudulent anti-Cuba event just a few metres away, entirely violating the regulations governing the use of UN premises and facilities.

The Permanent Representative noted that the gathering was a clandestine, pirate assembly that had no connection whatsoever to the official agenda of the United Nations.

He stressed in particular that, although the Cuban side had repeatedly warned the UN Secretariat about this unauthorized gathering beforehand, the Secretariat took no action to stop the scandal.

Soberón Guzmán said that Washington had attempted to conceal itself while gathering a very small, selective, and discriminatory group of member-state representatives in a room to spread falsehoods about Cuba.

He described the speakers featured in this political staging as paid pawns on the direct payroll of the US State Department.

The ambassador underlined that the individuals on the panel were either directly convicted common criminals or figures tied to bloody terrorist organisations that have inflicted death, destruction, and indescribable suffering on the Cuban people.

He noted that the sole reality behind this spectacle was an effort to obscure the fact that the US acts as an international rogue and outlaw, inflicting collective punishment on the entire population of Cuba.

Stating that the US is inflicting massive suffering on the whole population of a peaceful nation, the Permanent Representative said the most powerful state on earth is fabricating pretexts and trying to impose false narratives to justify its criminal aggression against the Cuban people. He recalled that no excuse could legitimise this criminal policy.

He said the only genuine and legitimate item before member states and the General Assembly was the devastation caused by the US economic embargo on Cuba and the imperative to end this coercive policy immediately.

He announced that the General Assembly would address this vital matter not behind closed doors, but in an open official session on 27 and 28 October with the participation of all member states.

Soberón Guzmán noted that Washington knows full well that the overwhelming majority of member states will once again fully support Cuba’s just demand.

The Permanent Representative reiterated that Cuba poses no threat to anyone, and that the only real threat is this illegitimate embargo.

Stating that the charade staged right next to them was intended to sabotage the process surrounding the legitimate resolution against the embargo, which the General Assembly will consider for the 34th time, Soberón Guzmán stressed that the puppet panelists were trying to conceal the severe devastation wrought on the public by the policy of maximum pressure and an unprecedentedly compounded embargo.

He said the US is weaponising a noble concept such as human rights to crush Cuban sovereignty and its right to self-determination.

Guzmán stated that the sole purpose of the policy of collective punishment is to break the unyielding will of the Cuban people and overthrow the constitutional order, recalling that this is an old ambition Washington has pursued for decades without success.

He noted that Cuba is not in those closed rooms but right here, and that the true representatives of the Cuban people alongside the overwhelming majority of the United Nations stand firmly with Cuba.

Soberón Guzmán concluded by stating that if anyone in the US administration believes they can break the unshakeable determination and unity of the Cuban people, they are wasting their time, their efforts, and their substantial resources:

“We will never kneel, we will never surrender; onward to victory always, homeland or death, we will overcome.”

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