Lakshya Jain, in The Argument:Despite his reputation as a working-class whisperer, Platner is actually doing far better with upscale Democratic whites than with non-college Democrats. Each primary poll with regional breakdowns has shown a common theme: Mills does far better among the blue-collar Democrats in the rural north of the state, while Platner cleans up with wealthy, coastal liberals who…Read More

There’s been a lot of discourse about taxes over the past week, mostly kicked off by proposals by Sens. Van Hollen and Booker to cut taxes, followed up by other proposals like Gov. Hochul’s proposal to get rid of taxes on tips. Or at least that’s how they’re pitching it, though Matt Bruenig notes that Booker’s plan, at least, gives…Read More

Photo by Marino Linic on UnsplashI have a longstanding aversion towards the kind of pseudo-psychological commentary that dominates modern political punditry, but you don’t have to be a licensed therapist to notice something deeply unhealthy emanating from Silicon Valley this week. Here’s Marc Andreseen’s latest appearance on Tech Bro Glazing Podcast #8593:David: You don’t have any levels of introspection? Marc:…Read More

At a casual glance, the chart above probably looks like an ordinary graph of wealth inequality in the United States. It captures all kinds of crucial trends that define economic life in this country — for example, that the bottom quintile has negative wealth (they’re in debt), and that 45% of the country are making less than the national cost…Read More

I have a longer piece on the way about how capitalism created Epstein, but in the meantime I can’t resist responding to a comment by Matt Stoller:The Jeff Epstein saga isn’t a scandal about pedophilia, it’s about a Russian word called ‘blat’, a Soviet-era word meaning “the use of personal networks for obtaining goods and services in short supply and…Read More

For all the talk one hears about political polarization shoving everyone into opposite camps, our pundit class is still disproportionately infected with the scourge of political centrism. And predictably, in the wake of the Renee Good and Alex Pretti shootings, a new conventional wisdom has crept into the discourse: the right has reacted to their deaths with shocking sadism and…Read More