Sunday Ops Report: The REAL Manchurian Candidate?; Epstein Follies; The Job No One Will Take

Plus: A mystery surrounding the Kohberger court....

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Jul 13, 2025

So if we accept that Zohran Mamdani and his fellow travelers in the left’s progressive movement (AOC, the Squad, etc.) represent the future of the Democratic Party…

And if we recognize that many of the ideas espoused by these new faces are more in-sync with foreign governments than with traditional America…

Well then, shouldn’t we be asking: Who is funding these people?

The mainstream media won’t ask the question. But we will.

Zohran Mamdani, likely NYC’s next mayor and pretty much an out-and-out communist, has built his political brand on the promise of waging war against billionaires — a class he actually says, “shouldn’t exist.”

He denounces “wealth hoarding,” while calling for aggressive taxation, free buses, and government-run housing (as in, you know, communes).

But beneath the slogans, Mamdani’s “populism” movement looks like just another polished product of elite engineering.

Here’s the question: Who is running and funding this guy? And as his star rises: Who does he owe?

According to a recent exposé by The New York Post, Mamdani’s campaign benefited from an eye-popping $37 million funneled through a progressive infrastructure largely bankrolled by George Soros. That sum, in fact, dwarfs anything Mamdani’s own campaign raised from actual voters. Of the $37 million Soros-bucks, nearly $24 million went to the Working Families Party, which in turn provided in-kind support and digital outreach efforts for Mamdani.

So while Zohran the Magnificent performed as the street-level revolutionary, behind the curtain he was being propped up by one of the wealthiest oligarchs on earth. That’s not exactly a people-powered uprising.

And Soros isn’t the only billionaire at the puppet strings. Multiple campaign finance watchdogs, including Sammy Antar over at White Collar Fraud, have detailed how Silicon Valley titans poured money into PACs that promoted Mamdani as a grassroots hero. Through vehicles like the “New Yorkers for Lower Costs PAC,” these young moguls—many of whom made their fortunes in crypto or app development—sent hundreds of thousands into New York’s municipal politics.

These are often individuals who’ve held immense financial power since their 20s, and whose money clearly doesn’t come with wisdom or an appreciation of history. It comes instead with ideological naivety wrapped in coastal virtual-signaling.

Even Hollywood got in on the act. Steven Spielberg, the billionaire director, was named as one of the contributors to the PACs backing Mamdani. For figures like Spielberg, supporting far-left causes is a cost-free exercise in self-righteousness. They write the checks, claim their moral superiority, and insulate themselves from the chaos they subsidize.

Hollywood doesn’t live in the neighborhoods affected by radical housing experiments and defunding the police. They don’t send their kids to the schools disrupted by ideologically driven reforms. But they gain bragging rights knowing they bankrolled “change”—without ever having to deal with the results.

In Mamdani’s case, the funding streams are the usual opaque NGO sleight-of-hand. White Collar Fraud uncovered at least $2 million ”laundered” through supposedly grassroots PACs, where elite funds were washed and rebranded as community-driven spending. In one instance, the nonprofit “Make the Road Action” handed over $45,697 to the far-left Working Families Party PAC—only for that exact amount to be returned in “in-kind” phone bank services. That’s not a movement; it’s a shell game.

But the most concerning layer of Mamdani’s donor web may not even be domestic. The New York Post recently reported that the “Jews for Zohran” group, a vocal organizing bloc for his campaign, is led by Alicia Singham Goodwin—the niece of the infamous Roy Singham, a China-based tech billionaire and marxist ideologue whose influence operations stretch across continents.

Roy Singham, the reclusive founder of Thoughtworks and now a resident of Shanghai, has been identified by House Republicans and multiple journalists as a key funder of pro-CCP narratives in Western activist movements. An American citizen, his web of donations includes support for anti-ICE protests, anti-Israel campaigns, and organizations accused of laundering foreign propaganda through American activism. His ideological network includes media fronts, campus groups, and leftist NGOs. Many of these have financial or institutional ties to Democratic Socialists of America candidates—Mamdani among them.

*(Roy Singham — Zohran’s man in Shanghai?)*

Alicia Singham Goodwin also served as political director of “Jews for Zohran,” Mamdani’s Jewish outreach arm. She lives in a Manhattan luxury penthouse and is an active financial supporter of Mamdani’s campaign. Her mother, Shanti Singham, is linked to China’s notorious Confucius Institute system, while her father, Daniel Goodwin, served as legal counsel for Thoughtworks, Roy Singham’s company.

This is not a casual link—it’s dynastic alignment with a foreign-connected billionaire who promotes anti-American ideology from overseas.

Add to all this that Mamdani’s success so far is widely credited with his use of TikTok — the social media platform that even the left acknowledges is a Chinese influence operation.

So this is the machine supporting Mamdani: billionaire funds washed through an NGO ecosystem of radical activists, foreign ideological interests, TikTok virality, tech wealth… all supported by America’s leftist media narratives.

So while Zohran Mamdani rails against billionaires, recall that they are precisely the ones underwriting his revolution. The pundits are wrong; this isn’t populism. It’s puppetry, disguised in the language of the working class, and funded by marxist elites.

So the next time Mamdani spouts off about the danger of billionaires, voters should ask a simple question: Which ones—his “enemies,” or his sponsors?

The Epstein Follies

So at this writing, the conflagration over “The Epstein Files” continues. What’s in them? Why won’t DOJ release them? Etc, etc….

Now clearly, President Donald Trump and his AG, Pam Bondi, really want the story to go away. It’s been a continuing albatross around the administration’s neck, and even MAGA-world wants answers. Let’s try to provide a couple of quick ones.

First: As everyone demands the Epstein “client list,” what must be admitted is that there almost certainly is no such “list.” Are we to believe that Epstein had an actual list of those he was blackmailing? As in, what — taped to his refrigerator?

There’s no “list” per se. As much of a list as likely exists has in fact already been released by the court — the manifests of who flew on his plane. Those names are widely known and all over the internet. Forget the “list.”

Second: Epstein killed himself. As we’ve noted previously, anyone who believes an entire shift of federal corrections officers, the NYPD detectives who must have been called to the scene, their bosses, the DOJ and Inspector General personnel who investigated the case, the prison warden and his staff, fellow inmates, and on and on and on… that all these people could possibly keep such a secret, when whoever talks is in for a media bonanza and financial windfall…. Forget it. Such a caper could never be planned, executed, and covered-up on planet Earth as-we-know-it.

Third: The suicide issue is really a red herring; what is of interest here is the investigation into Epstein — specifically, what was removed from his various homes during the execution of search warrants.

And to be more specific: the videos that even Pam Bondi tacitly acknowledged exist (she recently called them “child porn that will never be released”).

So here, then, we arrive at the real issue: WHO, exactly, was on the videotapes that Bondi has alluded to?

Yes, she’s called the tapes child pornography — but never did she say anything about who else was on those tapes. As it is widely acknowledged that Epstein’s homes were wired with hidden cameras and video systems, the idea that there are boldfaced names on those tapes, along with the under-aged victims, appears to be the real issue.

Right now, as the President gets much of his agenda through, his administration is suffering genuine reputational damage over the Epstein story. To many, Pam Bondi over-promised and under-delivered. Add to that the possibility of Dan Bongino resigning, as well as Trump’s clear reluctance to even engage on the issue, and you have a recipe for conspiracy theories, accusations, and MAGA dissatisfaction.

Whatever it is that is at the heart of the Epstein-related disagreement between Bondi and Bongino, it must be acknowledged: it has to be pretty big. Some have suggested that there are names from Trump-world involved. Others theorize that Republican congressmen are implicated, sitting members who would be forced to resign and thus return the House to the Dems.

While those are simple and obvious reads, they beg one question: If that were the case, why didn’t the Biden administration release that material?

The mystery endures, but before we equate it with mysteries like the JFK assassination… doesn’t it feel like something has to give? Soon?

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New York Underground

The NYC subway system is the largest, by sheer number of stations, in the world. It is the life-blood of New York, the circulatory system of what is supposed to be the world’s most vibrant city. It’s why the health of the subway system is so often used as a gauge of the city’s overall health.

Right now, that health can best be described as… shaky.

Which begs the question: Can the system — and therefore New York — ever truly come back?

Some history. Andrew Cuomo’s genius criminal justice “reforms,” woke district attorneys who refused to prosecute subway crime, and the COVID-related ridership collapse all combined to send crime and disorder on New York’s transit system skyrocketing.

From 2021 to 2022 the so-called “seven major” felonies spiked 30% to 2,345, including an unheard of high of 10 homicides in 2022. Along with the crime surge, homelessness, mentally ill persons, and general disorder also spiked — and riders stayed away.

In 2019 there were 1.7 billion riders. That number cratered 50% to 640 million in 2020. Recovery was slow, with 760 million riders in 2021, 1 billion riders in 2022, and 1.2 billion in 2023. A look at daily ridership shows that the 2023 number does not seem to have risen much over the past two years.

So: a half-million people — roughly the population of Atlanta — are no longer taking New York’s subway.

Clearly, steps needed to be taken, but the justice reforms, toothless mental health laws, and a refusal to prosecute crimes made a solution tough to find.

So New York’s leftist leaders did what they always do – throw taxpayer money at the problem. They decided to flood the system with police presence, and so pumped-in funding from a city and state desperate to bring paying passengers back.

The result was the spending that went through the roof. NYPD transit patrol overtime went from about $4 million in 2022 to $155 million in 2023 — a 3775% increase. The current fiscal year budget allocates $77 million for NYC transit safety.

Now initially, many cops were happy to make a few extra dollars and swell their retirement numbers. But this rigorous work schedule can’t be upheld forever. Seasoned detectives found themselves standing on foot posts in transit several days a week. That is a poor use of a valuable resource. Cases suffered, burnout grew, and retirements increased.

So what’s been the payoff? Looking at the most recent NYPD CompStat sheet we see that the “seven major” crimes in the subway have decreased by… 35 crimes so far this year. A whopping 3%.

A drop of 35 crimes — in the largest transit system in the world. Maybe we should finally try locking up the fare-beaters and others that plague the system? You know — lock them up and keep them locked up?

Subway safety and confidence in the system are critical, but now comes the consequences of this expensive uniformed omnipresence drive. Cops are burnt out. Crime has slightly declined, but it is hard to argue that the reductions are sustainable without continued massive spending. Homeless, disorder, and disarray on the system persist. The root problems have not been addressed by Albany, City Hall, or any of the District Attorneys’ Offices.

And what happens if Albany and City Hall cut off the spigot of cash? The ol’ “overtime trap”: massive retirements of senior NYPD cops, because overtime is “pensionable,” and pensions are based on a cop’s last years of service.

So if you suddenly reduce the overtime of a cop who was making hundreds of hours in transit overtime — that cop is out the door. As if the NYPD doesn’t have enough recruitment and retention problems (see below).

Hundreds of millions of dollars spent for a reduction in a few dozen crimes doesn’t seem like a good deal. Add the potential loss of veteran cops and it looks like a typical government boondoggle of wasted spending and unintended consequences. No surprise in the Empire State.

Diagnosis? Like so many of America’s blue-run cities these days, New York City’s overall health is, “on life suppport.” And it will likely remain so.

And just wait until Doctor Mamdani shows up for his house call….

“Help Wanted” — But No Takers

The above is only one aspect of many NYPD’s manpower woes — but it’s not just New York. Law enforcement agencies around the country are having major recruitment problems. In some instances, entire police departments are simply quitting (see here, here, and here).

Who can blame them? Cops have been getting a bad rap for the better part of a decade. Getting harassed by camera wielding “cop watchers,” baited and surrounded by (often NGO-funded) “demonstrators,” maligned by the media, all while being thrown under by politicians… who would take this job?

Understand, most people drawn to police work are not motivated by money or even the benefits. They want to have a job that they can be proud of and that is respected by their fellow citizens. That is simply not the vibe that most guys wearing a police shield are getting these days.

The result is the sort of thing we saw occur in New York this week. The NYPD has already lowered recruitment standards to the point that other police departments will not accept NYPD transfers — a circumstance unheard of in history, when NYPD was considered the gold standard. Now the NYPD has rushed so many candidates into the latest Academy class, many of the recruits didn’t even meet already lowered standards. People who never should have been sworn in were issued firearms and shields and sent out onto the streets.

The ongoing investigation into these substandard recruits has revealed that pressure from the brass to fill classes led to some errors or possibly even misconduct (the Inspector in charge of candidate assessment was recently transferred to another assignment). To make matters worse, a judge has ruled that the NYPD cannot simply get rid of these recruits, as they were already awarded the job.

It’s a scenario ripe for disaster in the future. The NYPD experienced a similar scenario in 1968 and 1969, when a lack of recruitment led to lower standards. Five years later the Knapp Commission was in full swing and many of the low-standard hires were the focus of a major corruption investigation.

The recruitment and retention problem for the nation’s law enforcement is likely to get worse in coming years. Sure, cops should be paid more. But what is most needed is a general change in attitude from all the usual suspects — the media, the politicians, and the activists on the left who profit in various ways from demonizing police.

And here in New York, it’s clear that the issue is approaching a breaking point. We need competent, considerate, and courageous people to be New York’s Finest. “Almost meets standards” simply will not cut it in this city.

It doesn’t bode well….

The Sunday Pod: A Conversation With Jonathan Fahey, Former Director of ICE Under Trump 45

Join us for a discussion of ICE past and present with Jonathan Fahey, former Director of ICE during Donald Trump’s first presidential term.

Director Fahey had an illustrious career as a federal prosecutor, an Assistant Secretary at DHS, and then ICE Director in Donald Trump’s first term. Frankly, this is a guy who’s seen it all.

Can Trump and Homan actually get 12 million illegals out this time? What should ICE do as they continue to come under threats and attacks?

And who does Director Fahey blame for the current state of our broken immigration system? (Hint: Readers of this space won’t be surprised…).

Join us as we welcome a true pro, Jonathan Fahey, to the Ops Desk! (Click below for a Preview… and HERE for the full take).

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Questions remain regarding the plea deal in the Bryan Kohberger case. A new controversy has arisen as to why the judge has allowed the gag order to remain in place — something that both the prosecution and the defense (strangely) agreed to. Gag orders are there to protect against undue influence on a jury; in this case now, there IS no jury. In light of the fact that the judge offered to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate egregious leaks in the case that occurred at the last minute… and then a plea deal that shocked everyone…. is there something to hide here? The media thinks so — a coalition of outlets has petitioned the court to remove the order. Don’t be surprised if this ends up in federal court on First Amendment grounds. But the question remains: Why a gag order when there is no jury? Is there something to hide here?
Donald Trump has granted ICE the ability to make arrests when protestors interfere with their activities — an ability, we believe, ICE already had. Perhaps the order is simply an endorsement. But either way, expect the battles between ICE and protestors to only heat up now. We say: arrest away. Then charge to the fullest, investigate and map the networks, and follow the money. Why does it seem like it’ll lead to many of the same actors we covered in this week’s Mamdani piece?
Washington, D.C. is not just another in our nation’s “nutjob archipelago” of crumbling cities — it’s our nation’s capital. So it comes as good news that Donald Trump is considering a full federal takeover of D.C. in order to clean up the crime and disorder the current mayor simply can’t manage. One wonders: would the Trump administration consider a similar tactic if we get Mayor Mamdani in NYC? The President has essentially said so. Legally dicey — but possible….
And speaking of D.C: The State Department is one of the most uniformly leftist aspects of “the Swamp.” And if you needed proof….