This isn’t going to win Seth Moulton many friends on the progressive left. Nor by saying Democrats have “become the party of the ultrarich and the ultra-poor.” He’s right on both counts. But he’s still an odd duck. Russell Berman has more at the Atlantic. … Btw: I completely forgot Moulton ran for president in 2020. It was that memorable. Come to think of it, ditto Deval Patrick. Btw II: I’d take either one over Biden at this point.

At the Atlantic, Jeffrey Flier, co-president of the Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard and former dean of Harvard Medical School, lambastes Harvard dean Lawrence’s Bobo’s call for limits on faculty speech.

Fyi: The Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard was founded last year prior to Oct. 7. It’s good to see it being consistent on free speech post Oct. 7.

Sure, the state’s new millionaire’s tax generated far more revenue than backers expected in its first full year. But do people really expect millionaires to stick around while the state takes an extra 4 percent bite from their incomes?

I noticed the same thing while watching the parade on TV. This is not your ‘80s Boston. Great column by Gary Washburn. 

Rigged this, rigged that. Everyone screams ‘rigged’ these days. But in this case, it really is rigged, i.e. pharmaceutical pricing. Specifically, the pricing system overseen by so-called pharmacy benefit managers, or P.B.M.s. … And this is just one facet of our bloated, overly expensive health-care system. Think of what’s happening behind the scenes regarding pricing for medical devices, blood tests, hospital stays, ambulance services, etc. etc.

Fox News ran all sorts of critical stories on the Democrat judge overseeing the recently completed Manhattan case against Trump. The NYT is now running critical stories on the Republican judge overseeing the current Florida case against Trump. Notice a mirror-image pattern here? It’s hard not to notice. … Next up: Reverse news-media complaints about how questioning the fairness of a judge can harm the credibility of the entire judicial system.

It’s like modern washing machines: The more features you add, the more often they break down.

Since the Healey administration imposed state hiring restrictions in early April, the state’s payroll has grown by 1,300. Compared to hiring trends last year during the same time period, it’s actually less, officials say.  … So it does and doesn’t add up.

 A reader writes in:

“The WSJ has a story today – some main points:

“- As already speculated, WaPo’s 3rd Newsroom is some form of digital news/social media entity.

“- New CEO Matt Lewis launched such an entity four years ago, The News Movement. (According to TNM webpage, Amazon is a partner.)

“- Per WSJ, ‘One goal of the Post’s “third newsroom”—the first is the core news operation and the second is the opinion section—would be to reach and generate revenue from audiences who are unlikely to pay for subscriptions but will engage with the news outlet’s content on social-media platforms, people familiar with the Post’s plans said.’

“- There are different perspectives offered on this plan forward including:

“One risk of doubling down on social-media distribution is that it gives publishers less control over the exposure their work gets. ‘Any effort to build audience on TikTok or other platforms must be undertaken with eyes wide open since it represents a dependence on other companies’ platforms rather than direct customer access,’ Friedlich said. … 

“‘The Washington Post and all other news brands need to go where the young people are,’ said digital-media consultant Matthew Goldstein. “

Interesting. But the TNM website sure looks gimmicky to me, the creation of a MSM outlet’s desperate attempt to be social-media hip. But what do I know? I’m just a Boomer.

Btw: The Associated Press is an apparent TNM partner too. …

 And I still don’t understand why the Post can’t focus on hard-hitting national news, the obvious attraction for most of its current 2.5 million paid subscribers, while experimenting with its side “third newsroom.” It’s not as if 2.5 million paid subscribers are insignificant. 

Massachusetts’s emergency-phone system crashed yesterday, its second outage in three months. And it’s happening elsewhere across the U.S., leaving officials increasingly nervous about the aging systems’ vulnerabilities.