“We get the government we choose to elect, hence the government we deserve. Voting for ever-higher punitive taxes on the rich is arguably a form of civic suicide. Consider that a wealthy New Yorker can get a raise of almost 40% just by moving. That’s right. If moving eliminates a 14.8% top state and local tax rate, our top-tier taxpayer gets a 36% raise, not a 14.8% raise, by leaving. It’s doubtful if any of our city and state leaders have done this math, but it’s shocking. Mamdani wants to take the top rate up another 2%, if not by the state then by the city, which would mean that our rich neighbor can get a 42% raise.” (03/26/26)
“At this year’s National Football League Super Bowl, the Trump regime could not resist politicizing the event by attacking the halftime performance of Bad Bunny, a celebration of Puerto Rican musical culture conducted entirely in the Spanish language. President Donald Trump endorsed an alternative country western streamed halftime program of Kid Rock, which was dedicated to the conservative icon Charlie Kirk. It was the president and his party inciting the MAGA base to campaign for congressional Republicans. The two shows represent two radically different cultural streams in America, roughly approximating the struggle over ethnic, gender, and racial representation in public life. On a more material level, however, the unfulfilled day to day needs of working people caught up in this ideological divide suggests that rhetorical claims about the culture wars are not grounded in the quotidian realities and material demands of most people.” (03/26/26)
“Texas, as we’ve always been told, doesn’t do things on a small scale, and Republicans there are not about to be outdone when it comes to inciting fear and loathing of Muslims. Gov. Greg Abbott, now in his third term and practically guaranteed to win a fourth in November, has made certain that no one can outdo him on this issue.” (03/26/26)
“This is my fifth group of the many short principles that help clarify reasoning, decision-making, or analysis. I am featuring some of them in a series of posts, expositing a few of them each time. Some of these are insights into the worlds of public service and business.” 903/26/26)
“In the early hours of February 26, agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) arrived at Columbia University student housing. According to the school, the immigration officers told campus safety staff that they were police officers looking for a missing 5-year-old child. But once in the building, agents knocked on the dorm-room door of Elmina ‘Ellie’ Aghayeva, a student from Azerbaijan. When her roommate opened the door, agents quickly detained Aghayeva. … Columbia’s policy is to not allow federal agents onto nonpublic areas of the campus without a judicial warrant. Most immigration arrests, however, are based on administrative warrants, which do not require a judge’s sign-off. So how had ICE gotten onto university property? In the hours after Aghayeva’s detention, as students and faculty rallied against DHS, it became clear: ICE had lied. And, as it turns out, that’s (mostly) legal.” (03/26/26)
“The voters most keen to talk with political reporters are, typically, extremely engaged in politics. Most people will never attend a political rally in person, and most hang up when pollsters call. So it was useful and instructive to spend an evening listening to women who did vote, and had some worries about the country’s direction, but avoided most news. It underscored the challenge that Democrats and Republicans alike face reaching these voters.” (03/26/26)
“A couple of years ago, when AI had come onto the market and was clearly reshaping the society, I decided that I would have nothing to do with it—I would boycott. This decision was based partly on morals and partly on practicality—I suspected that, underneath the really impressive technological breakthrough, AI was still, essentially, a one-trick pony. And now that AI has evidently gone through another revolution, vastly improving itself in recent models and opening up a whole world of coding to the public at large, it seems like I should have to re-examine my decision to boycott—which, actually, is one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever made. I am more adamant about it than ever.” (03/26/26)
“No issue more defined Donald Trump’s presidential campaigns and two terms than promises surrounding illegal immigration, and no sentiment more defined the MAGA movement than vitriolic xenophobia. Getting a close look at what that means to most people seems to have repulsed Americans, thereby breaking Republicans’ grip on the issue. An enormous survey of nearly 5500 Americans (with a margin of error of only +/- 1.49%) from PRRI shows the extent of Americans’ distaste for mass deportation. Trump personally has lost the country. Overall, his approval is at a measly 36 percent (with only 28 percent from independents).” (03/26/26)
“Over the last decade or so there has been a notable attempt to ‘reclaim’ neoliberalism, pushed by thinktanks and journalists. Strategically, it might make sense to jump on the bandwagon, because part of the battle of ideas is contributing to how terms are understood. Neoliberalism thus becomes a contested brand. You have your museum, we have our bright and optimistic Reddit thread. But there has also been consideration to the term from academics. The common attitude amongst pro-capitalist scholars is to dispute the validity of the concept and ignore most of the literature as being flawed and ill-intentioned.” (03/26/26)
“Google once had a motto: ‘Don’t be evil’. In its reorganization in 2015, the motto was changed to ‘Do the right thing’. According to a California jury this week, neither motto stuck. In a historic verdict against both Google and Meta, a jury found that the companies maliciously designed their social media products to addict children, including the plaintiff, who was known only as Kaley or KGM. The jury heard testimony of efforts to ‘target’ young users and feed an addiction to social media and YouTube. The jury awarded Kaley $3 million in compensatory damages divided between Meta (70%) and Google (30%). It then awarded another $3 million in punitive damages. Those damages are nothing to companies worth billions. However, the verdict was like a dinner gong for plaintiffs lawyers.” (03/25/26)
