Important Advice For Mamdani And The Sweetest Idea

Looking for exciting young Democratic talent?

James Talarico, 36 — to whom I’ve introduced you before — announces Senate bid (3 minutes).  Move over, Cornyn and Paxton!

Even younger at 33, Zohran Mamdani strikes me as a talented, thoughtful, idealistic leader who could surprise on the upside.  But I sure hope he reads How Zohran Mamdani Could Kill New York’s Schools* by former Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s Chancellor of Education, before he gets too dug in. 

If he doesn’t take good advice like this — and I think he may — there will be no upside surprise.

*Killing, in fact, the excellence of schools like the very one he himself attended.

THE SWEETEST IDEA . . .

. . . came to mind when I saw this:

Jeff Bezos’s Amazon has made my life, and, I assume, the lives of hundreds of millions of others around the world better — or we would not be using it.  My main issue with plutocrats is that they should be taxed more heavily.

What bothers me most is the bottom right quadrant.

Most workers are no longer unionized.  They have no bargaining power.  It’s Congress that represents their interests — Congress that should “negotiate” a higher federal minimum wage.  (State governments can go further, as many have.)

I’d be fine with differentiating between high, mid, and low cost-of-living zones — and perhaps building in tweaks for high school kids and tipped workers. But is there any part of the U.S. where $7.25 an hour is adequate?

If the obscene growth in income and wealth inequality since 1980 bothers you, check out Patriotic Millionaires at the Honey Festival.

They call it “the sweetest idea.”