What is WRONG with Bill Ackman?

The Great Mamdani Freakout

It didn’t take long for Great Defender of the Oligarchy Bill Ackman to step up in defense of the poor quivering capitalists watching Zohran Mamdani from the glass aeries of Manhattan and the deck chairs of the Hamptons estates. Less than 48 hours after the Democratic primary voters of New York City resoundingly kicked Cuomo to the curb in favor of the 33-year-old Democratic Socialist, the hedge funder stepped in with some Musk-style electoral bribe money.

Posting on X, he wrote that he is "gravely concerned about New York City" and asked: "Who is your best centrist candidate who could go toe-to-toe with Mamdani on the campaign trail and on the debate stage? Let's crowdsource the names and then do a poll. If someone is ready to raise their hand, I will take care of the fundraising.”

He then used his blue check to elaborate in a longer missive:

”This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the right candidate. More importantly, it is an opportunity to save our City and be a superhero. Life is short and you must dare to be great. The time is now. … In my experience, opportunities with minimal downside that don't require huge investments of time while offering massive upside get filled. If you were ever thinking about running for office, or running for a higher office than you currently hold, this is likely the best opportunity that you are going to have.”

Oh, Bill, what ails ye? Seriously, what disorder afflicts this billionaire with a net worth of $9.3 billion that he is so concerned about people getting free bus rides and decent housing?

Remember too that Bill reportedly lives in Chappaqua! In what ways could a dent in the wealth inequality of New York City hurt him and his cronies at Pershing Capital?

Like the rest of his gang, many of whom are participating this weekend in the Bezos-Sanchez billionaire hog-trough grotesquery in Venice, presumably Bill is either untroubled by, or literally does not see, the toiling multitudes in New York City who work their asses off in multiple menial jobs that keep the urban system running – nurses, taxi drivers, construction, grocery clerks, just to name a few – only to be unable to pay for housing in the nation’s biggest city.

Fuming about the very idea of free bus rides for them, Bill keeps his eyes averted also from the growing numbers of unhoused people on the streets and subways, for whom one single hundred dollar bill from the millions he’s ready to lavish on “a centrist” would buy a week’s worth of food and maybe a vermin-infested homeless shelter bed (again… this is in the richest city on earth).

But he sure as hell wakes up and smells the coffee when voters in what’s left of democracy in America choose a 33-year-old democratic socialist who does see and understand this.

Of course, we already know exactly why Mamdani’s victory woke him up, and we know exactly what he’s afraid of. Men like Bill, perfumed princes behind the high hedges, live in constant abject fear of the least incursion into their rigged game because they know deep down in their souls that if the situations were reversed, they’d be tearing down the walls to get their hands on the pelf themselves.

The Democratic Party is certainly at another crossroads right now. For years, those advocating and practicing reflexive obeisance to the paymasters of both political parties have been winning, presenting namby-pamby insiders to the voters, pretending that trying to win some culture wars gives them enough virtue-signaling street cred to be allowed to ignore the elephant in the room.

In the hours since Mamdani’s win, Democrat establishment types have been warning their ranks that the “extreme left” will destroy their party. Mamdani must be defeated, and if it takes Bill Ackman’s cash to do it, even better.

To that, one must point out that the Republicans have welcomed actual Nazis, unrepentant fascists, anti-science lunatics and rank misogynists into their big tent – and won BIGLY!

They built a big (and utterly nefarious and despicable) tent – meanwhile, Democrats continue to destroy their own in service to some fickle billionaires. Unless and until the Democrats learn to tune out the Ackmans, to spurn their Citizens United legal bribes, and crawl from under the grip of their own timorous, anti-progressive centrist fear-mongers, there’s no hope of overthrowing the autocracy.