Retrospect
Retrospect
The New Mayor Of New York City | Retrospect Ep.214
In this week’s episode we discussed the recent election of Zohran Mamdani and what it means for New York politics. We explore the policies, controversies, and voter sentiments that shaped the outcome, and discuss why his victory has sparked such a divided reaction. Expect honest takes, sharp analysis, and maybe a few sighs.
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Keywords
Zoran Mandami, New York City mayor, Democratic Socialist, election impact, policy changes, business community, grassroots movements, affordability crisis, government shutdown, Obamacare subsidies, tax increases, rent controls, universal child care, political divide, socialist government.
Jason
November 4, 2025 34 year old, Ugandan, born Democratic Socialist Zoran mandami won a decisive victory as a next mayor of New York City, one that caught both insiders and outsiders off guard. What was once considered an unlikely outcome has now become reality, and with it comes a wide array of consequences, from changes in policy direction to shifting alliances, from the reaction of the business community to the pulse of grassroots movements. In this episode, we'll ask who is Zoran Madame and how did he win? What promises Has he made and can he deliver? And perhaps most importantly, what does Zoran mandami election tell us about where we are now, as voters, as citizens and as neighbors? If you're listening because you want to understand whether this shift marks a turning point or whether it's a blip in the grander arc of politics, then you're in the right place. So let's get started, because when people choose someone like Zoran mandami, what happens next isn't just his story, it's ours, also.
Ian
Hey. Welcome to
Ian
Welcome to the retrospect podcast, a show where people come together from different walks of life and discuss a topic from their generation's perspective. My name is Ian, and as always, I'm joined by Stoney,
Stoney
hello
Ian
and Jason.
Jason
Hello everyone.
Ian
How's it going? Oh, it's
Jason
cold. It's our first really cold snap.
Stoney
It's gonna be freezing in the morning. We're recording on what is today, Monday, Tuesday, when we wake up, it will be freezing. That's wild.
Ian
And of course, over the weekend, I was out playing music outside, and it was, it was all of 7880 degrees outside, not but a few days ago, and here we are about to be below free thing. I was like, of course it is, of course it is, well,
Jason
you know, it's, you know, it's this little early for us, you know, you only get this cold. This, this, I mean, this kind of cold. I mean,
Stoney
this is actually the normal time that it should get cold, because I can remember as a kid in during Halloween, it was cold. You had to dress up. Sometimes you had to wear a costume over a jacket. Yeah. But then remember, they also have fired all the scientists from, you know, the doge stuff, and so our weather patterning is getting back to where it should have been. Remember, oh, wait, halfway through November, still no named storms. Uh oh. And then the US government came out today and said that chemtrails are real.
Jason
I know that's you know. I mean, you know these things that we've talked about that you know people are, you know, look at you like you're crazy or something.
Stoney
It's just for the record, that makes conspiracy theorists up 73 now to
Jason
nothing. Yeah, it's, well, I think what makes these conspiracy theories? Because they're all grounded in truth. And it's just, I just think there's things going on here that I think we're kind of right now. We're, I feel like I'm, I feel like we're just kind of swept up right now in this kind of tsunami of,
Stoney
what's the word? I'm looking for information overload.
Jason
Well, I mean, I don't know if you know information Yeah, but I'm looking for another term. I feel like there are things happening right now that we're all getting swept up in, right? And I think, you know, everybody thought, when, you know, President Trump got elected for the second time. He won the popular vote, the Republicans won the house, won the Senate. You know, we supposedly have the Supreme Court. So supposedly all branches of government are under public control. The Democrats were crying, oh yeah, you know, throwing temper tantrums and, you know, oh, my god, everybody thought everything was, everything was shifting the other way. But one thing I've learned about just watching politics for, you know, my life that right there is a universal law that we just seem to can't get away from every action causes an equal and opposite reaction. And I do believe that, yeah, you know, I do believe that that is what is led us to our topic. Today. You know, I never thought in my lifetime I would see a candidate declaring himself to be a socialist. Now he declares himself a Democratic socialist. I really don't know what that means. Really, that's just socialist and to win in our nation's largest city. But
Stoney
you see what gets me even more than that? He's a radical Muslim, yes, in the city that took two jets, right and killed you're right, Stoney, 4000 people. Oh, we will never forget. Was the motto apparently New York has forgotten.
Jason
Oh, yeah. Well, if you look at I mean, I've seen the kind of new I've been following the kind of the news that's the aftermath of this and and looking at the people who voted for him, and it was only like 40% of native born New Yorkers voted for him.
Stoney
That's still a considerable amount, it is. But I would have liked to have seen that more like four. But I
Jason
think what's happened is there's a lot of people now that that are no longer so that means 60% of the city is people who have were not even born there,
Ian
right? That was what I was, you know, you're talking about, like, Well, New York never forget. I was like, I'm pretty sure everyone that was in New York has left because it's not a place you want to be anymore.
Stoney
It's even more so now I was gonna say there were some crazy statistics about that. With this election, 14 to 24% of all the millionaires are planning on exiting New York, right? The same amount of businesses are planning on leaving New York now, right? And I'm like, Oh, wow.
Ian
And I think that New York's gonna tank. I think that's why, that's what, why we're seeing what we're seeing right now is because a lot of that you were talking about, you said the term, like a Democratic socialist, whatever. And I think a lot of times in marketing, especially with, like food products, they'll put terms on a box, even though it doesn't actually check that criteria at all, or it doesn't even have to worry about it. Like, if you go and buy, for instance, like frozen burgers at like, a grocery store of some kind, the I've seen some sometimes they say, like, it's gluten free, which, like, of course, all of them are gluten free, but you know, it still has to make a point to say that, you know, because it's like, it's a buzz word, it's a term. It like, it makes the product feel better. If it's quote, unquote, grass fed. It's like, sometimes you can't that's not always the that's not always true on the package. But I'll put that term there. And I feel like, the same thing with this. You have this governor. Now that's like, I'm, I'm this thing. It's like, okay, well, you're, you're really just a socialist, but,
Jason
well, I'm telling I'm right now I'm looking at an article here in The Guardian. It says one of the most important numbers from the mandami campaign is 100,000 so that's a number of people who actively volunteered for this candidate's campaign, knocking on doors, talking to neighbors and co workers. He he was able to bring out 1000s of non voters to the polls, a lot of young people feeling left behind and and I think this is the underlying issue here, and I think it is a warning sign of things to come. There are swaths of the population who feel absolutely not a part of the American dream anymore. And unfortunately, you have candidates coming along and talking about what I'm going to say is probably the most important thing. And I think some people have rightly got on on the Republicans. Right? Is this issue of affordability that is driving this unrest? Yeah, with especially young people, people under 40 that feel no connection to what America is supposed to deliver. They don't feel like I can afford a house, I can't do anything, I can barely afford a car, I can't afford to get married, I can't afford to have kids, I can't afford to do any of these things. And I think, I think we're in an inflection point. Something's going to. Happen, something's gonna break, something's gonna give, something's gotta give, because it and I get it, I get it. We're talking about right now with the government shutdown, oh yeah, and they're talking about the extension of the Obamacare subsidies, and what that's gonna do for people that are on Obamacare. It's gonna, you know, their health
Stoney
insurance is gonna dust off the Obamacare stuff was set to end correct at the end of this year. So it has nothing to do with that. What it has to do with is the $1.5 trillion a year they want for illegal immigrants to have healthcare. Obamacare was ending at the end of 2025 anyway, that's a non issue. That they're throwing that out there because they want to extend it a year. So it makes it look like what they really care about is free health care. No, they want 1.5 trillion a year for the illegal immigrants to have health care. So we need to be real clear about that when we throw that out there because they're lying and they're making shit up as they go along. It's got nothing to do with
Jason
that, I agree, but the promise still points to the affordability issue in this country. I mean, name the issue, health care, you know, financial security, you know, you just kind of all the, kind of the big topic issues. It always comes down to, can I afford this stuff? I mean, if, if I can't afford any of this stuff, then what does it matter to me? If the system is not working, then, you know what? Then the system needs to be burned to the ground and it needs to be rebuilt, because it's not obviously the working the way it's supposed to be working. And I'm just, I'm scared a little bit right now of what this might mean, because I'm gonna tell you, they have people on the on the Democratic side, and we all the AOCs, the Bernie Sanders. I mean, these issues have been kind of percolating now for a number of years. What is it? What does it mean for us is, is America becoming more socialist and expecting the government to be the Savior and eking its way. I listened to mondami speech, and something that a lot of people have picked up on. He said that there is no problem government, ie, government cannot fix which is complete opposite than what if we remember a very another politician from about 40 to 45 years ago basically said the word the most terrifying words, or, I'm from the government, And I'm here to help how much
Stoney
see the problem with mondami's government is is eventually you're going to run out of other people's money. Okay, let's, let's look at this. He wants to raise taxes on everybody that makes a million dollars a year or more, of which he says that platform is going to raise about 10 billion annually, until 20% of those people decide to leave. Okay, then he wants to raise corporate tax rates by 4.5% so on whatever they're paying now, he wants to add another almost 5% to their taxes and they're leaving. Okay? So he says he wants to shift the tax burden away from the homeowner to the outer boroughs, so to speak, because the richer people
Jason
live. Yeah, he wants to tax he wants to tax white neighborhoods. That's
Stoney
exactly what he wants to do, and he just don't want to say it. He also pledges to freeze rents. Good old rent controls. Okay? And he plans, and he said this, he was very specific, we will crack down on bad landlords, even to the point of taking it away from them. So if you don't play ball, if you don't want to freeze your rent, we'll take your property away from by from you, and we'll do it ourselves. Yikes. Okay, he wants universal child care for children under six. So basically, he wants to set up the indoctrination centers for people under six years old, and they're going to raise them in the Muslim fashion, and it's going to be free, so you're not going to have a problem with it, because you can't afford health care for your kids. Anyway, there will now be city owned grocery stores of a wholesale stock. Aisle to lower food costs for New Yorkers. So the mom and pop grocery stores and everything else is gone. It will be owned by the city. I don't
Ian
know. I don't know about all this.
Stoney
Well, you know what? I have a little thing here. Hey, do you know why the mouse died in the trap. Why is that? Because it didn't know why the cheese was free. There you go. Okay, and this is a prime example of what's going on. He's setting the trap, and he's already started things. Just the verbiage that he's using is, this is going to be insane, the budget for the fiscal year 2025, in New York is about $112.43 billion so he's thinking that now they're going to lose, think about that. They're, you know, they're going to lose a lot of that with people just, you know, what's the word? Not exile when you leave Exodus, Exodus, thank you. This brain damage, how you know it's going to be harder to meet that now, yeah, if you lose 25% or more of your income through taxes, because people are leaving you right and then where things are now commercialized or run by people who trying to make a little bit of a profit. Okay, your busses isn't free now, but now your bus is going to be free. So now you're going to have to add that money on top of it. Of course, now you're going to have to buy this, and now you're going to have to provide this, and now you're going to have to provide this. What do you think the budget would be? I just, I'm curious about that. What do you think the budget would be for New York City, providing everything for
Ian
free, too much. Probably it would be crazy. Or the tax I
Jason
saw that they the New York Fire Department Chief returned in his resignation, as soon
Stoney
as that, yes, I saw that, yes, yeah, you
Jason
know, right now, you know, part of one is, you know, just typical of people on this side of the political aisle, you know, kind of want to defund police, want to relax the kind of the the, you know, the prostitution enforcement and Not could I call the soft crimes, you know, welcoming vagrants in the subways and and just the problems that that just brings. I think what's going to happen is, is there's going to be problems there. If, if, if he decides to go that way with it. And I, there's no doubt my mind. Now he can look, you know, he may say all these things, he may end up coming back to the center, because the reality is he can't raise taxes without the permission of the governor of New York. And the governor of New York has said, No more new taxes. I mean, I just saw a a want to build, you know, the Real Time with Bill Maher, he had Bill, Bill O'Reilly, on the show, and they were talking about this election, and talking about, how many people leaving New York City? And Bill O'Reilly, I forget what stat he says, 600,000 have left New York City. 600,000 that's a lot of people. Where are they going? Florida, really? Oh, yeah. Why Florida? Matter of fact, there is a you see,
Stoney
not to interrupt you, where Texas said they're gonna have 100% tax on everybody coming from New York. Yeah, it's, I think it's a joke, yeah, if you come from New York, you're gonna pay 100% tax.
Jason
There's a lot of them going down to an area Palm Beach. Florida is a very popular destination for a lot of these people. But there is a kind of a nickname, which is called the Blue hairs the southern the southern wall street. And I
Stoney
used to call them blue hairs because, because they were snow bunnies. When it got cold up there, they came down to Florida right when it warmed back up, back there, they went back up there.
Ian
Yeah, they did that. I don't know.
Jason
As I said, you know, he wants to do a bunch of stuff, and what I'm worried about, I mean, right now, this is contained in New York City. I guarantee you, next thing is to run for. I mean, think about on the governor of New York. Governor of New York. Now you got control of both the purse strings. But what worries me is right now on the Democratic side. You know, many people have said he is the trump of the left, as far as the charisma and personality and stuff like that. I mean, think of right now, who the Democrat? Who are right now is the Democratic Party. It is, see, it is, well, I would, I would venture say it's mondami More than AOC. Say AOC is kind of a I don't think she would be taken very seriously anything, you know, outside of her own area. But I'm telling you, this is tapping into a lot of people. You know, I've always said it's hard to vote against Santa Claus, because, you know, politicians will give you what you want in exchange for power, right? And unfortunately, the destruction that causes long term is terrible, and I worry about America right now about this election? And no, this is just one election, but does this inspire other Democrats in other democratic cities, especially with high Muslim populations? And this is another thing about immigration. And this this uncontrolled, you know, crossings we had over the border have overwhelmed these cities and are affecting these elections because they're allowing these people to vote. They really are and and that's the problem. I hope the Republicans take this serious and start focusing on America first, and quit worrying about the rest of the world right now. We've got to fix this country's problems, and I know no one really wants to do it, because, let's be honest, there's probably no money to be made in that right? There just isn't and they better do something,
Stoney
because I did a quick little thing here. If it is the budget estimated, obviously, you really don't know, but you have to look at, if you take over the bussing system, that would be 800 to a billion dollars a year that you would add taking over the system. So if you do all of that, all of that he wants, health care, rent freezes, tax, fee, everything, the budget of New York City would go up to almost $180 billion Wow.
Jason
I don't, I don't know. That's what I'm saying.
Stoney
I think about that. Now 25% of the businesses and millionaires are going to leave, and now all of a sudden, you're going to pop your budget from 114 billion to 180 billion, even if it's 150 billion, you know? Because right now it's only estimates. Of course, nobody really knows for sure, but think about that. That's bankrupt. That's a bankrupt city, right there. Well, especially now you really got this off people, what is the, what's, what's the current budget? One, 14 billion. Yeah, that's rough. I mean, think about that. Yeah, that's a bankrupt city with a whole bunch of angry New Yorkers. Have y'all ever been to New York? I have they angry? Oh, I know. They walk around angry. Now, give them a real reason to be angry. Well, and I love New York. Okay, I've been there. I love it. That's if cities, if there's any left, if there's any left,
Ian
yes, unless they've all ran away, we're gonna be saying that about Florida. Now, apparently, as in, Florida wasn't crazy
Stoney
enough. I remember when I was in near Aspen, Colorado, right there was an interstate system that came through the area that I was and pointing West were two signs on the interstate. The entrance interstate, I think you mentioned. And it said, if you were from California and you plan on staying more than three days, turn around and go home. Florida needs to do the same thing. Say, if you're from California and you plan on staying more than a week or so carry ass back up north.
Jason
That's crazy. Well, I'm telling the big issue is affordability, and that's driving it's 100% dude, it's look. It is people, especially young people, are angry right now. And I don't know if we right now have an answer for them. I really don't think
Ian
too is like you can now, there's so many jobs where, like you can, you can work a remote job. So, like, I could work a job in New York remotely and live for super cheap in Texas or, like, they do the same sort of thing with Los Angeles. There's a lot of people that do a lot of work over in Los Angeles that work remotely, that live in Texas, because it's like, I can make enough money to live out there, but I sure as heck can't afford to live in Los Angeles or New York. So it's like, I'll go live down in Florida, where it's nice and cheap. Cheap, and I can go work at a remote job in New York and not have to be there.
Jason
And I'm just, I'm kind of worried that there's really not a young right now Republican that, to me, this is goes back to another episode that we taught we did, and it was the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and I'm worried that there's no one really on the Republican side anymore talking to young people, right? And that worries me. The ones we do have are kind of radical. Unfortunately, a voice has risen on the right, and I don't think it's who you want.
Ian
Oh, I think I know you're talking about. I don't want to say it.
Jason
I mean, I think you know who. Yeah, it's, it's, I mean, he just did an episode with Tucker Carlson. Yeah, the same guy. It's, it's Nick Fuentes, and Nick is out there. Oh, he's out there. He is out there. I mean, he's basically said he's an admirer of Joseph Stalin and Adolf
Ian
Hitler and and the crazy thing is that he is, he has got
Jason
5 million followers, young men, and I'm telling you, they're tapping into this insecurity. I'm going to get left behind. I'm being squeezed out. I'm being replaced. And I'm telling you this is what I was worried about, was who was going to rise up on the right side of the political spectrum that was going to replace Charlie Kirk. What made Charlie Kirk so effective? He his Christianity was interwoven into his message when he went on to those campuses and talk to young people and kind of engage with them on a level that he can connect with them. The same thing is happening with Nick Fuentes now, and his stock is going up. Quite this kid has been basically, oh, he's been blazing platform since he was 18 years old. Now, I hate to say it, but I think what they did to him when he was a freshman in college was probably not the right way to deal with him. I think I agree, if they would have, maybe somebody would have stepped in and tried to profit some guidance for him. Yeah, instead, they basically stuck him in a closet and told him to shut up, and they blacklisted him, de platformed him, matter of fact, he would, he was even, could not even fly on a commercial airplane for a year. They tried their best, they tried their best to get rid of this guy. He's loud. And would it? Would it? Did? What's happening now? Yeah, what are you seeing right now? The extremes on the left and the extremes on the right now are rising the let the middle is getting squeezed out, and people are now basically going to the extremes of these, of these two sides of the political spectrum, which neither of them are good, right? Neither of them are good. I mean, it's just not because it doesn't accomplish anything. But those are the ones that get the attention. They get, the clicks, the squeaky it does. And so, you know, once again, here you go. You see the ascendance of Trumpism and Maga, yeah. And then all of a sudden, now, what are you seeing? There's an equal opposite reaction. Now you got the rise of democratic socialists showing up. Now they're angry. They don't like Trump, they don't like Maga. They think all those people are just crusty old men who want to keep things just the same the way they are, and it's just and then now you got now the what you're going to see is now you're starting to see the beginnings of the rise of the far right, which is not good either, because the far right is generally filled with people that probably you don't want to deal with, right? You know? They just, they just, it's just what it is,
Ian
probably a little bit
Jason
radical. And so it's a bad time. Once again, I go back to what we in our fourth turning, I don't know, are we? Is this part of this conflict that's starting to happen and whatever emerges? Yeah, out of this, I gotta read, out of this, out of this fight, yeah. What is it gonna look like?
Ian
What is the aftermath gonna.
Jason
What is the, what is the New World Order? Because somebody's gonna lose, all right? Somebody will lose, yeah, and it's gonna go away, right? And you'll either have to accept it or go off hide in the woods
Stoney
somewhere. I hate to say this, but it sounds like what you know, everything we're talking about. The best thing to happen is December 29 three, I Atlas drive up and say, y'all are food. Screw all this bullshit. Y'all are food, soup, barbecue. You know,
Jason
I think it's Stoney. I think there is a truth to that. I think the only thing that stops this, I hate to say it, and I've been this eventual conflict in this, yeah, I don't know how we can hold right now, something external has got to happen, yeah, to wake people up from that, because right now we're going to start tearing each other apart. It's just what it had
Stoney
this cartoon. I'm going to go behind the curtain of stone. Okay, here we go. My favorite cartoon was Calvin and Hobbes. Heck, yeah. I love Calvin and Hobbes until I lost him in the fire. I had all of the books, yeah, by the author with everything, and one day I'm going to replace that. But I blew up and I had my favorite Calvin and Hobbes cartoon. And Calvin and Hobbs were walking kind of in a wooded field area, and there was a big pile of trash. And Calvin looked to Hobbs and said, you know, the surest sign that there's intelligent life out there is that it hasn't stopped here. Okay, yeah, and that's, you know, with the shit hole stuff that we got going on right now. Why would anybody now three eye Atlas? One of the things they said was they caught this Morris code thing, and it said, we're coming to change y'all and make some I'm like, oh, here it comes. Here it comes. You know, that may be what we need, actually,
Jason
yeah. It just, you know. I just, you know, right now I'm looking at just this, this, I think this discontent with just the way things are. This is right now, the median age of House members is 57.5 years old. In the Senate is 64.7 years Yeah, according to Pew, Pew Research,
Stoney
well, they said that the kids, what is it, Gen Z, they were the earliest ones to be able to vote in this last election. Yeah, they were so upset. So many of them voted for Donald Trump because they saw what was going on, and though they missed an opportunity to build on that. Sometimes you have to build on the little things instead of going for the super big things. What can we build on here? And the Republicans missed a great opportunity there with those young people, because so many of them voted exactly for this change, and then they started. Then are fighting and bickering, and you know, the media now can spend this shutdown any way they want and blame it on the Republicans, even though, wholeheartedly, smart people know it's the Democrats.
Jason
It's, yeah, there is no, I think there has been a missed. Well, let's say a huge I wouldn't say it's, it's, it's missed, yet you still have about 12 months for the for the midterms, right? So you can get, you've got to turn around. You've got to start focusing on what you were there for. And I and you know, what does the republican party look like post Trump? Because right now, Trump is the party saying this, what is the Republican?
Stoney
What do you stand what it would have been for was JD Vance and Charlie Kirk is his running mate. I think one of the reasons they killed him was they knew he was gonna be exactly the next vice
Jason
Exactly. And I'm telling you, that was a huge loss. Yes, they said that. The meat, though, just real quick, the country's median age is 39.1 years old. So there's a huge gap close to that. Yeah, there's a huge gap elected leadership. And I think, you know, the people in the country, but yeah, I mean, we are, we're definitely people are unhappy with the way things are going, and something has got to be done. Now, the question is, is what? I guess. The question is, well, I need to be able to afford a home. Okay? I get it. What do you do to make homes cheaper, though? Okay, so let's just off the top of our head, just Okay, we're gonna build a house. What's the cost that goes into that?
Stoney
But it's, it's deeper than that. It's just not. Buying the house. This is generational show when you have to look at what house do you want? My generation, my parents generation, they didn't build the half a million dollar home with the cathedral ceilings and the four car garages and then Park two brand new cars in it, and the side by side and the motorcycle and everything else. You went and bought a starter home within your budget. And then maybe, depending on what type of man you were, the woman, dr, if you if you had two cars, the woman drove the better car, because, you know, I'm a man. If it breaks down on me. I don't care. I need my woman and kids to get back and forth safely. You didn't have the brand new vehicles. You did it smart. But now, with the advent of all this social media and all this competition, everybody, Hey, I'm 21 years old. I need a $400,000 house. Well, really now I know, I know. I know you, and I've had this conversation, and I know you're not like that. But think about the mentality I know of the majority of the people today.
Ian
I think the hard part, you're right, but I think it's also hard when there are, I think, people that are normal, people that I think I try to lump myself into that. I think I'm pretty normal. I think technically I'm anyways, sure. All I'm gonna say is that the options that I've seen so far that are in my budget are either in a part of town that I don't want to live
Stoney
in, but that was part of the I know, I know we didn't want to be okay well, but I
Ian
don't think that your starter home was in some parts of the neighborhood that I've seen around here. That's all I'm saying. Once upon a time in that generation, I don't think there was parts of town like that. I Okay, but I don't, but I don't believe your starter home was there, whereas it's either that
Stoney
mine was okay, mine was on Hollywood street. There you go.
Ian
But anyways, it's either that, it's either that, or again, it's like it's falling apart, and that's the problem. It's like, I'm not gonna go invest in a home that, like is, I'm gonna have to put more money into it than it's worth. But anyways,
Stoney
you see, that's part of the mentality. What the old people said, If you don't nail at least one nail in the house every day, the house is gonna fall down around you. That was part of it. Was building your house, maintaining your house. What I'm changing things and doing
Ian
it perfect. I hear you. What I'm saying is, is that that the times are different. That house that is falling apart that needs repair is $350,000
Stoney
I agree with that, and that's ridiculous. Yes,
Ian
if that, if that house was half that price, I would be okay with it, right? But the problem is that the house that like that is not falling apart, that is in that budget, isn't a part of town where I'm like, I don't feel safe walking the streets, so I'm like, I'm kind of like, I'm in a rock and a hard place, at least that's my personal situation. But I know I'm also a one income household, and so anyways, I just know that there are other things that
Jason
you're of that age, in that age group that is right now facing these realities of everyday life now, of figuring out how I'm applying my future, yeah, you know, trying to buy a home or so, what do you think? What do you what do you want? I mean, as far as I want a cheaper house. How does How do you bring that about?
Stoney
I have a question. Are you ready to move to New York now that all this stuff is going to be free and taken care of for you? Absolutely not.
Jason
Okay. Would you vote? As I'm saying, would you
Stoney
point? I was trying
Jason
to you vote for someone with that. I'm curious if, if a candidate in an area that you're living Yeah, promises, I'm gonna do this, this and this, would you vote for it? Would you vote for it?
Ian
Me, personally, I would have to do some more research on because, again, I feel like I'm in the same camp as Stoney. A lot of times where I'm like, I'm all, oh, no no. Hold on. Hold on. Is it like? The thing is, I have, I'm coming. I've said this in the past. I don't think stories Listen to me, because I think we do agree on some of the same situation. Is that, like, I think that I'm all for those kind of things, but how are we going to pay for
Stoney
it? And look, you have to understand with me, sometimes I know that we're agreeing. I'm just fracking, okay, and
Ian
I know trying to get a ride. I don't know. And that's what makes, I think, an interesting show, yes, is when we get a little bit heated sometimes. But again, I would have to look into some of that sort of stuff, because I think that sometimes I think that some policies or some situations, or some funding situations, I think could potentially help out some of that. But at the same time, I also don't want to be in a situation where I'm, like, having to, I'm gonna get
Stoney
it's like I told me, Rob the other day. I know the arguments over, and I know I lost. I'm just really trying to piss you off.
Ian
Right your buttons. But like, right now I know a big, a big situation in the neighborhood that I'm I'm around. They had some really nice new houses that got built around. Right after covid. So, like, all of the like, materials costed so much more than it normally would. So all those houses that look so beautiful that, like, I don't think many people live in are, I think, a little bit artificially inflated because and like, they're not big houses. They don't have much land, but they're like, 400 $450,000 I got to
Stoney
see what Zillow and black straights, because they were inflating the prices, Blackrock would come in and buy them for more than the inflated prices. And then,
Ian
you know, for me right now, I get a I'm all, I'm also kind of taking a bit of a pessimistic lean, you know, to kind of prove a point like I know that there are areas where I live next to that aren't terrible, is it probably a bit out of the way? Yes, could I potentially afford a house there? That's not perfect. Yes, that's totally fine. I haven't been looking recently, but a lot of times I've been renting, you know, I've either rented an apartment that was really nice or I'm currently renting a house. So it's like, the house has a nice bit of land, that is, it's an it's in a nice part of town that I don't feel unsafe in, and it is very affordable, especially with a roommate. And so it's like, I kind of don't want to ruin a good thing because I go to a house that is not quite as good, or in a less, less than optimal part of town, I'm probably going to spend more money than I'm spending right now. Now, yes, that money's going into potentially owning a owning the home, and blah, blah, blah, etc. I get all that kind of stuff right. But right now it's like, it's kind of, do you want to I'm comfortable, and that's probably a flaw. Well, you're right. Well, that's a hard thing for me is like, once I'm comfortable, I get I have a hard time shaking myself up to do something that's going to potentially, especially financially. You know, as an artist, a lot of times, you know, if the money's coming in and you're in a comfortable spot, don't shake it up. Don't make it worse for yourself. So, but that's just a, you know, it's a personal thing. So I know that I'm a very different person in my age bracket, but I know there are certain people, certain friends of mine, that are married now, with one or two kids now, and you know, they have two incomes and they have a nice, decent home, and you
Stoney
know, that's one generational show. And I hate the fact that boomers are boxed here and x Gen are boxed here. Millennials are boxed here. Yeah, we kind of lean toward that, right? But we're all individuals. What's the old saying? Remember, you're unique, just like everybody else. And it's like, we box people in together, but everybody we're in the same storm. Now, some people are in yachts, right? Some people are in big boats, some people are in canoes, some people are on life rafts, some people have on life jackets, and some people are drowning, Yeah, guess what? It's the same storm, and we're all just trying to figure this out, and what can we do? And then somebody like Madame comes in and promises the free cheese, right? Well, look at every other socialistic government that's ever happened in this world. Venezuela one of the greatest South American it was the top South American country for decades, producing, exporting all of a sudden socialism comes into it, and within 1010, years, it's at the bottom, and people are dying, people are hungry. I don't want that for
Jason
America, right? The this is where, this is where I often struggle. What? Where is the where is the line that you can tax somebody's
Ian
work?
Jason
Where does the law of diminishing returns happen? Oh, that's
Stoney
already happened, because this is not just the income you taxed on your income. It's tax on your house, taxed on your car yearly, taxed on your house after you paid the taxes on your house. Okay, then you got your food, then you're taxed on your services, then you're taxed. There is no recovering from this tax situation. This country was founded on a half cent tax on a breakfast beverage, and we are already over taxed. Don't agree with everything Donald Trump is doing and saying, but that's what he's trying to resolve with the tariffs. This country was founded on a tariff system, not taxing the people.
Jason
Yeah, no, I agree. I think a lot of the frustration, I know, I hear a lot of comments you know about Trump ain't doing this. Trump ain't doing that. And this is where I think the divide in the Republican Party is, you have Maga, and then you have traditional Republicans. And I think that's, that's where the divide is. So I hate to say it, but there are a lot of bills that if Trump. Had his way, he would, you know, I think some of the things he campaigned on would happen. I think what's happening is there's a lot of Republicans that are not on board right with his agenda. And so
Stoney
well, he messed up when he came in. He said he and that was to his little, his little fight with Elon Musk, okay, we're going to go to one bills. We're not going to have big, beautiful bills anymore. He kind of backtracked on some things, and he hurt himself tremendously. Because while he had Elon Musk helping him out and he had other people helping him out, things were a little bit differently. But now those changes when he put that big, beautiful bill in and it was 1500 pages, and it had this pork, this pork, this pork, this pork, this pork. While we're trying to cut the pork with Doge over here, it kind of muddied his message. I don't
Jason
believe any politician will ever cut anything I hear that you can pretty much at at state level, at the national level, at the end of the day, no one wants to cut anything
Stoney
normal businesses when you work, let's say, if you work for the state, okay, are you going to cut your budget? Are you going to spend less than what your department's budget is any year, it would make you look good if you did, hey, I did all of this work under budget. I used 80% of my budget this year. What would happen the next fiscal year? You would lose the 20% that you didn't spend. Right? Exactly. So that's saying there's that's in any business, that's in any government, you got to spend it or you lose. There's no
Jason
one's got to go up. There's no incentive. There really isn't any incentives for government to really ever cut. You know, that's what I don't
Stoney
believe. Well, the incentive is doing the right thing for the taxpayer and the American I think that's the right thing.
Jason
I believe we're kind of, you know, kind of crossed a Rubicon on that. I agree 100% I think we, we there's no politician will ever say you're gonna do with less. Oh, yeah, you would never get elected. No, you would not get elected. Because, I hate to say it, there are more loafers than they are producers.
Stoney
Yes, Yep, absolutely. And that's what a socialistic government is. Once you get to that cusp, that point there, how do you get back? Because you're not going to convince all of these people to go back to work. You're not going to convince that's what the cheese is. What's what
Ian
we did. We had the same conversation, oh, or we did a few weeks ago, about the whole stat benefit thing. Once someone keeps this in, this train moving, once you keep getting this. My dad used to say this growing up, and I never really understood it until I got a little bit older. But he was like once, how did he phrase it? He says, you can give a man cheese and crackers his whole life, and he would be happy. But the second you give him bread and ham, you can't expect him to go back. Once he has the taste of the good stuff, once you bring him back down to the other stuff, you're like, he's gonna be like, Wait a minute. I kind of wanted that. I kind of wanted that good stuff again.
Jason
You'll never it's just, I hate saying, look at right now with the government shutdown and the whole snap snap issue, yeah, I mean, you had people basically, that's my right to get the get that snap money, and people about ready to riot. Yeah, of course, just proves to me, I don't know how you reel any of this stuff back, right? You've created constituencies of dependency on all this stuff, and once they have it, they have it, you're not going to pull it away. Short of some you know, apocalyptic disaster happens and that that would be about it. As I said, it's people will always take the easy way. Well, think about they'll never take the hard way 100%
Stoney
but think about the universe 25 experiment. Are you familiar with
Jason
that? I haven't heard about the universe 25 experiment, okay, what they
Stoney
did was, was they, I think they took, like, 300 mice, and they put them in this fantastic structure, I think I now that you they gave them all the water they needed, they gave them all the food that they needed. They had everything that they needed. And within a certain amount of time, fights, Riot, rapes, all of these things started happening in this socialistic we're providing all of you. They had the perfect heat and cool. Everything was provided for these mice. And within X amount of time, I'd have to look it up to see and I please forgive me for my. But the colony died. It was because people think of, think about, Okay, how many Ed commercials Do you see on TV, on your stuff? Erectile dysfunction. Nobody's having sex anymore. Well, that's what happened in this colony. The mice quit having sex. The colony died after some
Jason
of so my question, that's what we're doing here in America. I'm trying to understand the experiment so that you're saying they put a bunch of
Ian
mine, basically. So it says that, basically, it was a 101 by 101 inch cage that was sometimes called the rodent utopia, quote, unquote, which had ample amounts of resources, like food,
Stoney
unlimited food, water, nesting, materials, temperature control, everything was perfect, ideal living condition, yes.
Ian
What happened the study was supposed to it was to study psychological effects of extreme like overcrowding on like a population without limiting like natural factors, of like predators and diseases and stuff, right? And then I think, if I'm not mistaken, it, it just it collapsed. Oh,
Stoney
okay, here I found that I typed, I got it zero to 104 days, small, stable growth, 105 to 314 rapid reproduction, prosperity. Population doubles every 55 days, steep increase, 315 to 560 days, stagnation. Growing slows after day 560 population crashes to extinction. The
Ian
key findings that it says, Here it was. It says that the population density increased initially, but then it says they have a they called it the term, I think they coined. It was behavioral sync. Is what they called merged. And it basically says that mating rituals ceased. Mothers abandoned their young, leading to high infant mortality rates and cannibalization, cannibalization and infinticide, just the killing of children or eating of children. Some mice became socially withdrawn, passive, while others became aggressive and destructive. So it's just one of these things where, like, they had everything, population grew, and all of a sudden, like, everything went into hysteria, and it just it collapsed, like slowly across, like Stoney had just said. And you know what was funny,
Stoney
taking a break. The experiment was done a number of times. Yeah. Guess what? The common denominator was, same thing happened each time.
Ian
And that's what they coined, behavioral sync. So that's the same sort of thing. Is like we're potentially experiencing a behavioral
Jason
microcosm of human behavior, right when under the same circumstances,
Ian
and people are saying that people are doing a lot of parallels to right to abortion and to other situations,
Stoney
I want to throw something that you said, remember, we did an episode, was it dating in the modern world, where He said, only the beautiful people, this happened in that society. The beautiful mice didn't reproduce. They were the beautiful ones, right? They shined. They cleaned themselves. What's happening online? These beautiful people are this thing that, you know, men are stupid enough to send, you know, 1599 to whatever woman a month, to look at her pictures. It's the same thing happening today. It's exactly the same thing happening today. The world is experiment. 25 they're trying to give you unlimited everything that you want and for free. Hey, cheese, ain't free.
Ian
It's a trap. I think there was also some stuff that said there's, like, excessive grooming and things like that. Like Stoney had said, where there was a, I think there's also, there was some other sexual stuff. Anyways, it's, I think there's some videos on I could probably send you later. It's an interesting
Jason
kind of thing. Basically, population collapse, yeah, 500
Stoney
and something days. It's done,
Ian
right? But if this is a small thing, you know, think of it on a larger scale, kind of like we're dealing with a lot of people were, there's a lot of, like, I said, parallels between sexuality stuff and males.
Stoney
They even did one of the studies with white mice, and the white mice is brain is more similar to ours. I think I remember, God, I'm sorry about the brain damage, guys,
Ian
I'm actually curious. I forgot about this until you mentioned it. Behavioral sync is kind of the the token term that this is used for, but that's the study that kind of came about. But yeah, it's a interesting to think about, especially when talking about what we've been talking about today, all these kind of socialistic things. And so, yeah, who knows? Well,
Jason
I'm looking at something else here, which I find interesting with the you know, which is, I tell you, so it was a lot of. Younger people are are upset with the whole Gaza issue. Oh yeah, oh yeah. I found some stats here. Pew Research poll last year found that just half of Jewish Americans under 35 said the way Israel has carried out the war has been acceptable, while 68% of Jews age 50 and older, says it was acceptable. So that's telling me a lot of Jews under you know, in those young ages, are not happy with the way that whole conflict is being handled. And I'm telling you, I think that has something to do with with mondami tapping into that discontent.
Ian
I think it also hasn't. I mean, I don't want to be too controversial here, but I think that was a whole lot of stink about the, oh, free Palestine
Stoney
Dark Side controversial over here. Okay, come on. I was
Ian
gonna say there's a lot. It was a lot of, you know, yelling, hooping and hollering about Free Palestine. And the second Trump goes in there and starts, actually, like, you know, doing some ceasefire work and all. And actually, like, creating some peace. It was never about, never about free in Palestine. It was never about that. It was all about the as they should have hailed him. Oh yeah, he wrote, he finally did what they wanted exactly, oh, never heard. Not a single thing about it. I was like, Okay, I see how it really is. You're all just peacocking around. You're all just pretend.
Jason
I'm very curious about that. Since New York City has a very large Jewish population, I was curious what they're thinking with this Muslim Mayor being elected and kind of some of the things that I'm reading here said many members of our community woke up with a sense of unease. Said Hindi pupico, Senior Vice President at the UGA Federation of New York. It's a major Jewish nonprofit to there's a lot of uncertainty about how Mayor mundami might act once in City Hall.
Stoney
Oh, he said first thing he's doing is shutting the police force is gone. They're gone. They're done
Ian
over. It's gonna be pandemonium.
Jason
As Jewish opponents of mondami expressed concern about his refusal to condemn the phrase globalize the Intifada, a slogan of support for Palestinians, as some interpret as a call to violence against Jewish people. He says, after his nomination, mondami privately told a group of business leaders that he would not use the phrase and would discourage others from using it. According to a July New York Times
Ian
report, I love you say something so radical. Oh, Psych, my bad. Don't say that.
Jason
Yeah, they said. The anti Defamation League last week launched a mandamni monitor to track his executive appointments and other actions for potential harm to the Jewish community.
Ian
Is he specifically kind of anti he's
Stoney
a radical Muslim. He, no, he is a, he's a radical Muslim, all right?
Jason
He's, he said all the right things about, you know, stamping out any anti semitic talk. But he's also converts with people that are dubious, yeah, in that regard, like, for example, the big controversy with him is he was seen arm in arm with the one that the guy that was one of the was involved in the or was claimed to be involved to the World Trade Center bombing, okay, yeah, recall that interesting So, and you know, there's kind of been back and forth. Well, you know, that was kind of pitcher was taken out of context. The Others said, No, exactly, he knew exactly what he was when they took those pictures, because they vet those people who they take pictures with, because of the So, yeah, I don't know. Trump said on Tuesday, any Jewish voters supported mondami is a stupid person. Oh, no, I think right now the you know, the rights got its own issues with the whole fracturing, with with Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens and, of course, and it's just, it's a mess right now. It's a shame, but that doesn't surprise me that that happens. It just seemed like there's always a force that's preventing this from really coalescing into one deal. And as I said, I think there are a lot of Republicans that are not on board with Maga. They just aren't. They're there because they have to be, but they don't really. They're not. They've never. Really been on board with Trump, right? And what Trump appeals to is populism, yeah, and kind of the worker when I think also they've never been wanting to, you know, part of the whole thing of bringing manufacturing back to the United
Stoney
States, no, because that breaks their profit away from exactly it kind of
Jason
breaks the paradigm of what's been going on for the last, you know, 40 to 50 years when, when Nixon opened up China, and companies realized that, hey, we've got a source of cheap labor, right? That's when you started seeing companies really started moving in the in the 80s, and then by the 90s, they were rocking and rolling.
Stoney
Started the socialist movement. We started buying instead of creating, right?
Jason
Yeah, he goes, I he said this Jewish supporter said, the election proves that the Jewish vote is far from monolithic, because I support Mamdani, not in spite of his views on Israel and Palestine, but because of them. Said Ronnie Xavi Bruner 26 an Israeli who canvassed for the candidate, I don't think that speaking out against genocide is that big of a risk. But I mean, but I mean, look who, I mean, you think about it, look who the Democrats, who he was running against, was against Andrew Cuomo. Yeah, Cuomo had his own issues.
Stoney
Well, he had the name Cuomo number one.
Jason
Well, that, but he just had the sexual abuse things there, and it was just some negativity associated with him, and when he was governor of New York, especially during covid, yeah, and we all saw what happened there, I think it was a just a perfect vortex of things to happen. I think there's anger of just things are just unattainable for people. And I, a part of me, I sympathize with that, because if I can't feel like I have a stake, yeah, in the game, then what am I? What good is this for me? And you got enough people that this happens to and basically you have, I hate say it, but you have another French Revolution, Oh, yeah. And it's Off with their heads, type of, type of mentality, like this old system. It's just not working. And I don't know really what the fix is. I don't know what the fix is to get health care. I have been a big advocate that no one should go bankrupt because I'm sick now, how you deliver that? I don't know, right? I don't have an answer for that. Well,
Stoney
what do they say? 75% of Americans are one moderate vehicle repair away from bankruptcy.
Jason
Yeah, I can see that. I can see that that's that's insane. Most, most families, the margins they're operating under is high. Worse than check to check that it's tight. It's really tight, and you got a lot of people living a lot of debt. So interesting times that we're in. I'll be very curious how this plays out, how the Republican Republicans respond to this. I mean, right now, we're trying to get over this government shutdown and but I saw while
Stoney
we're recording this there, yes, there's some possibilities. I
Jason
think the Senate. I think the Senate. I know Marjorie Taylor Green has been the Democrat. I mean, the Republican Representative from Georgia has been making the circuit. You know, she's been going on the view and all the podcasts and, and she's pretty angry, because she wants to work she, I know she blames Mike Johnson for for the shutdown and, but I think it's a little bit more complicated than that. So we'll see what comes out of this. But I think our viewers, our listeners, really need to pay attention to what this means, especially if you see other like minded Democrats win, yeah, how? And then, all of a sudden, now, what does that person on a national scale? Yep, look like,
Stoney
well, but you see, what is Milwaukee, that comparable person lost, yes. And AOC comes out, which is her district, and says. It's racist, right? Well, no, it's smartest. People are getting tired of your socialistic bullshit. I think lost bad
Jason
a lot of these people, I don't really think they truly think out. I mean, I'd say it, we're in the age of quick clicks, and I want to say some shock. It's sort of like, kind of equivalent to the to the football field. If I can make that analogy, we've lost the fundamentals of tackling because they're looking for the big hit.
Stoney
Thank you.
Jason
I think, I think you, you apply that to the political I think people shoot out things. They don't really think out what they're saying, because ultimately you're going to have to take other people's money, and then the question comes in, at what point did now you rob people of the initiative to create things that move society forward,
Stoney
but also on top of that, in 100% agreement with you. What happened this morning, Donald Trump made an announcement. What was that announcement? Was it the $1 billion lawsuit against the BBC? Hell yeah, for taking two of his speeches and putting them together and making
Jason
it look like he presented a false, a false, yep. What
Stoney
happened today? The CEO and one of the news
Jason
directors resigned, really, yes, I didn't see this well.
Stoney
Look so you can't even say something and it'd be real.
Jason
I said people when that whole thing happened, I said, Oh yeah, that that was not what he said, Yeah, and it's amazing what people believed. Oh gosh that, yes, he advocated to break into the I said, No, he never said any of that stuff. I said that's just, you know, I get in these conversations with people online, on post stuff, I'm like, Look, you've got to be objective. I mean, this hate Trump, hate Trump, hate Trump for everything. You basically pin why the world sucks because Donald Trump is president. Donald Trump ain't been around forever, yeah, really has it. We've been in trouble.
Stoney
See and Biden and Schumer and all those people have been
Jason
around. I mean, all of these guys. Mean, you see Nancy Pelosi, which she ended up retiring with, leaving Congress with, she was worth over $300 million making $180,000
Ian
a year. That's ridiculous.
Jason
All these Democrats that claim to be for the working person, and they're also super rich, yeah, they don't have nothing to do with the working course, not working people. Hey, it's all a joke. Of course, it's all a joke. All facade. Pay Attention everybody. Yeah, it's gonna get interesting.
Ian
Keep your eyes open. As usual. We have our comment sections on Spotify on YouTube, where you can leave your responses, and if there's a long form response you can't fit in that comment section, we have our email address getting offended together@gmail.com, be sure to like and subscribe whatever platform you listen to us on, because we you know, we appreciate that, and it helps get us out there to more people, and until next week, thank you so much for listening. Bye, bye,
Jason
Goodbye, everyone, and God bless
Stoney
in Calhoun's universe, the mice had everything, food, comfort, shelter, but they had no purpose. They didn't die of hunger or disease. They died of meaningless and today, maybe we're seeing a city follow that same path. New York, a city of abundance and brilliance, has reached a point where comfort no longer satisfies and chaos feels like change. Electing a socialist or even a communist Mayor isn't just politics, it's psychology. It's the scream of a population that has every material thing but can't feel anything. Calhoun's mice forgot why they built nest. We've forgotten why we build nations. So as generations, Boomer Gen X, millennial Gen Z, we have to ask, are we fixing the system or fleeing from the responsibility that made it work in the first place? The real collapse won't come for hunger. It will come from apathy. And if we want to prove Calhoun wrong, we need to rediscover something the mice never had, faith, purpose and moral courage. Hey, thanks for hanging out with us today. You're the best peace. You.