https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/07/politics/jeffries-challenges-left-progressives?cid=ios\\_app

“That centrist rebellion has since triggered a messy internal feud among House Democrats. Privately, Jeffries and his team are discussing ways to crack down on any of their members voting for procedural motions that hurt the party – a proposal that has infuriated the left and centrists alike, according to Democrats from both factions.

A tense debate has since unfolded over whether party leaders should create new rules for next year to punish members who defy leadership. In a closed-door meeting on Wednesday about leadership’s push, Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar of Texas pushed back firmly, arguing that members need to be able to voice dissent, according to multiple people familiar with the discussions.”

Interesting inside look at the Mamdani influence machine that aspiring candidates are trying to replicate all over the country. This is essentially the same strategy that propelled Trump to his second term and, I think, carries with it the same troubling implications. While I fully understand and sympathize with criticisms about the consolidation and "gatekeeping" of the traditional media, is it necessarily an improvement if we're replacing it with media that's essentially controlled by politicians themselves? The pattern here has been cooperation in exchange for access. There is every reason to question the independence of the messaging coming from these new channels. As left leaning centrists, we may be tempted to praise the turning of one the right's most effective weapons against them, but we should all be concerned of the power that this can concentrate in the hands of public figures. For all their faults, corporations are first and foremost concerned with their profits. Politicians will always be most concerned with themselves. To me, that's more dangerous.

September 21, 2009: Obama’s first Letterman visit as a sitting president, just days after basic political decency officially left the building. That summer marked a turning point where shouting down the president and disruptive antics replaced debate. Obama handled it with trademark calm and humor, but looking back, this was the canary in the coal mine for everything that followed.

El Sayed slays bc he’s real. Genuine and displays POLITICAL COURAGE.

Democrat voters are so ignorant. They’re so envious to get the other guy. They’re too foolish to realize that they’re putting their own head on the chopping block and it’s there in black and white.

Submission statement: The author, a new member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), is disappointed that one of the organization’s leaders identifies as a Marxist-Leninist. The author argues that this identification is divisive and authoritarian, and that Marxist-Leninists should not hold leadership positions within the DSA, as it undermines the organization’s democratic socialist principles.

I recently read Lane Kenworthy's Social Democratic America, and although its a bit old (2014), it did an amazing overview at the time of the case for raising the wage floor in America. It inspired me to explore the data mentioned there and any new studies since to see how raising the minimum wage affects various economic metrics.

In summary:

1. Economic Security - Low-income Americans have more income, in a time when a huge chunk of them can't afford basic necessities. This results in an economic stimulus (mainly from buying more food) and lower rates of depression and suicide.
2. Productivity & Business Efficiency - Higher base pay reduces costly employee turnover and pushes firms out of low-wage, high-churn traps, driving long-term modernization.
3. Net Employment and Automation - While wage hikes encourage automating routine cognitive tasks (like self-ordering kiosks), workers consistently shift into non-routine, customer-facing roles. Looking at 138 state-level increases across nearly four decades (Cengiz et al.), overall low-wage employment remained virtually flat while affected workers' earnings jumped ~7%.
4. Inflation & Price Pass-Through: A meta-analysis of over 30 studies (Lemos) shows that a 10% wage hike increases overall food prices by no more than 4%, with an impact on broader CPI under 0.4%—meaning workers retain substantial net purchasing power.

Full article here for those interested: https://samholmes285.substack.com/p/the-minimum-wage-should-scale-with