Bill Maher was on a roll Saturday night, caustically pointing out the obvious flaws of democratic socialism if you take its anti-capitalist rhetoric seriously. … I’ve harped on this general issue before and won’t do so again now. I’d just add that Maher is right when he suggests the real problem with democratic socialism is that its extremism merely empowers extremism on the right. They feed off each other. I guess you can call it a form of dialecticalism. Am I using that word right? I’m trying to remember from my very long-ago history and poli-sci courses

Update — Fareed Zakaria was a guest on Maher’s show last night. Here’s his most recent common-sense advice for Dems, via the Post.

— I knew there were a lot of them, but not this many: “New England college closures are accelerating, with 32 in the past decade” (BBJ)

— They all sound like a string of cliches anyways: “The No. 1 Country Song in America Is AI-Generated” (Newsweek)

— Close call, but I think she’s right: “Boston Fed president favors holding rates steady to cool inflation” (Globe)

— This could get very expensive – and controversial: “New State Coastal Resilience Plan Proposes Voluntary Buyouts” (Commonwealth Beacon)

— What similar ‘youth’ movement pops to your mind? “Putin Is Turning Eighth-Grade Classrooms Into Army Training Grounds” (WSJ)

— Speaking of Vladimir, you can thank Ukraine: “Why Maduro Probably Can’t Count on Putin” (The Atlantic)

— Giving credit where credit is due (and blame): “Trump’s obesity drug deal: the good, the bad, and the unknown” (Globe)

— Have you gotten a 20 percent raise lately? I didn’t think so. “Boston Mayor Wu to receive $43K raise after reelection, will be paid $250,000 in 2026” (Boston Herald)

— Nooooooo: “Goldberg v. O’Brien, Round 2?” (MassterList)

— Hmm. It’s sort of like binding arbitration but not quite: “Inside the Little-Known World of Private Judges for Hire” (WSJ)

— Local history that I wasn’t aware of: “250 years later, tribes in Mass. are ensuring their Revolutionary War veterans are honored” (WBUR)

If you have time, definitely check out the Globe’s excellent “Squeezed” package of stories on the plight of the middle class in Massachusetts, starting with the apparent mainbar (“Why the middle class is disappearing in Massachusetts”) and moving on to the second article that I’ve read so far (“One job, three generations, 30 years of inflation: A story from Massachusetts’ shrinking middle class”). The latter piece really hits home, looking at a Dorchester grandmother whose lifestyle trajectory is completely different from those of her daughter, who works in the same family child-care business as her mother, and her granddaughter. One generation could afford to buy a home and live in relative comfort. The younger generations, well, you know the answer.

Btw – As the Globe notes, the definition of “middle class” is tricky these days in Massachusetts. Most sources measure it by income, in this case around $70,000 to $200,000, give or take ten grand or so. Obviously, there are a lot of people in that category. But if you define the middle class as people who can somewhat comfortably afford the American Dream of buying a modest home, you’re talking about a much smaller number of middle-class residents today in Massachusetts – and it’s even worse in Greater Boston, where the median price of a single-family home is now more than $1 million. … And we’re not even talking about the skyrocketing costs of health care and higher education, two other big-ticket items increasingly burdening middle-class and other non-wealthy residents …

Btw II — Coincidently, the Globe series came out the same week as the Boston Foundation’s latest devastating look at the regional housing market, as GBH reports.

Btw III — Think affordable opportunities increase the farther west you move in Massachusetts? Think again. This NYT piece makes clear that the housing crisis has hit the Berkshires full force, with the same fundamental problem confronting the region: lack of new housing construction.

So U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley is indeed considering a Senate run in Massachusetts, calling up allies to see what they think of a challenge to fellow progressive Ed Markey, the soon-to-be octogenarian incumbent, as Politico reports. … The NYT’s Jess Bidgood has a good piece on all the young-and-restless Dems, including U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, who would love to replace Markey. … So what happens if Pressley gets into the race? The possibilities are fascinating: A.) Pressley galvanizes the left and beats out the two white males to win the Dem nomination B.) The two progressives, Pressley and Markey, cancel each other out, handing the nomination to the more moderate Moulton C.) Markey is forced under pressure to withdraw, setting up a Pressley vs. Moulton showdown, something the MSM will instantly frame as representative of the ongoing ‘civil war’ within the Democratic Party (while providing Pressley with fawning coverage) and D.) Markey beats the two insolent whippersnappers. …

… As a moderate, I’d obviously love to see Scenario B. unfold. Can you imagine the progressive outcry and the demand for ranked-choice voting, something they support whenever one of their own doesn’t win a crowded primary race? …

But first Pressley has to declare she’s running. And don’t discount the chances of Republican John Deaton, particularly if Pressley or Moulton win the Dem race and the general election comes down to a battle of newcomers.

Update – 11.13.25 – The Herald’s Joe Battenfeld has his doubts about whether Pressley will run and whether she can win. … Btw: I hadn’t heard of the UMass poll Joe cites in his column, which shows Pressley running third behind Moulton and Markey in a three-way race. I tend to agree with Joe that the poll actually shows Markey is vulnerable, with Pressley and Moulton’s combined numbers higher than Markey’s.

Damn. It turns out school committee candidates backed by local affiliates of the Massachusetts Teachers Association did much better in last week’s elections than previously thought, as Contrarian Boston’s Scott Van Voorhis reports. Sure, MTA-backed candidates in Newton got their clocks cleaned last Tuesday. But school committee candidates backed by a teachers’ union nabbed seats in Watertown, Cambridge, Beverly, Quincy, Waltham, and Gloucester, according to Scott. … Think about it: a union whose members’ revenues come 100 percent from taxpayers now have their favored candidates sitting on boards deciding how to spend taxpayer money. … And let’s not get into what this means for the radical curriculum agenda of the MTA.

It was once the pride and joy of the emerging robotics industry in Massachusetts. But now it’s facing bankruptcy, unable to find a suitor after its failed hook up with Amazon, as theBBJ reports. How did Bedford’s iRobot go from techno star to bankrupt has-been? There are many reasons, as the NYT’s Liam McCabe lists. But I’d argue that iRobot’s ultimate problem is that it’s been a one-hit wonder in a very limited consumer robotics market. Beyond its famous Roomba vacuum cleaner, iRobot just hasn’t developed other hit products. And those that came close to being hits (at least in terms of techno coolness) weren’t within the narrow confines of the consumer robotics market, such as PackBot, which was part of iRobot’s defense and security business before the firm sold it off in 2016 to focus on home robots – even though the industrial robotics market is far bigger and more lucrative than the home robotics market. … 

Meanwhile, Roomba is losing market share by the day, due to a “glut of cheap, decent competitors” that offer  “largely indistinguishable” product quality, McCabe writes.

How much longer can a company survive with only one primary product in a narrow, highly competitive consumer market? My guess is not much longer.

Image above via Wikipedia.

Update — 11.14.25 –– Sounds pretty lame. But who knows? From the BBJ: “Robot manicure machine starts global rollout with Braintree Ulta.”

The Herald’s Jed Gotlieb has the scoop: Sarah Silverman may be performing “Something to Tell You,” perhaps the most moving ballad ever sung, at tonight’s Comics Come Home 29 at TD Garden. … The song definitely ranks up there with Cups and Cake.

— He’s backpedaling but hasn’t quite disavowed his trans-athlete comments (as far as I can tell): “Seth Moulton Challenged Democrats Over Trans Rights After The 2024 Election. Not Anymore” (NotUs)

— Oh, c’mon. For president? Really? “Could Michelle Wu crack the national ticket in 2028?” (Boston Herald)

— An interesting sale heading into the winter: “Owner of Jay Peak sells New England ski mountain” (BBJ)

— Larry Edelman tells it like it is: “Raise Up’s tax hike would stall progress on Massachusetts’ business climate” (Globe) 

— Good. And he won on Tuesday, so we’ll hold him to it: “Somerville Mayoral Candidate Opposes Davis Square Tower” (B&T)

— The group was effectively hijacked by fanatics: “The Sierra Club Embraced Social Justice. Then It Tore Itself Apart” (NYT)

— I used to be skeptical of such therapies as well. No more: “Why Harvard doctors are seeking out this natural remedy for themselves” (Washington Post)

— A nice nod to history by the governor: “Founding Father Samuel Adams gets new home in Gov. Healey’s office” (Boston Herald)

— An oversaturated market will do this: “Cannabis retail license surrenders surge to record high” (BBJ)

— They’re snapping up more pied-à-terres here than you may think: “When Helicopter Parents Touch Down—At College” (The Atlantic) 

— Does this make us hip? “Meet the micro influencers thriving in Boston” (WBUR)

— Technically it’s an obit, but it’s really an amazing story of a Hollywood legend’s beyond-diva personal life. What a great read: “Maria Riva, Dietrich Daughter who Demystified the Legend, Dies at 100” (NYT)

Now that Tuesday’s off-year elections are ancient history, it’s time to turn our attention to 2026. And the Herald’s Peter Lucas has it right: Gov. Maura Healey’s administration is definitely showing cracks these days (the Lamar Cook fiasco, Tibbits-Nutt turmoil, Plaza-gate, cabinet turnover etc.) but combined they’re probably not enough to seriously endanger her re-election chances. Yet, she is making her re-election more difficult than maybe it should be, especially if her general-election foe turns out to be GOP megadonor Mike Minogue, who’s already pumped $1.5 million of his own money into his campaign and launched TV ads a full year before the 2026 election, as the Globe reports. … Not to discount the other two GOP candidates (Brian Shortsleeve and Mike Keneally) but it sure looks like Minogue, a businessman and Army veteran, is the early odds-on favorite to win the Republican nomination, based mostly on the wads of cash at his disposal. … Minogue’s greatest liability if he ever goes one-on-one against Healey: Donald Trump, as more than a few readers have noted in the Globe’s comments section.

Btw: WBUR reports Healey was recently in Miami raising funds from, among others, Florida-based lawyers at Morgan & Morgan, the personal injury law firm headed by the billionaire old guy you can’t miss on TV. Does Barry Feinstein know about this?

Contrarian Boston’s Scott Van Voorhis reports that three Newton school committee candidates backed by the local chapter of the teachers union everyone loves to hate went down to defeat on Tuesday. It seems a lot of Newton voters remembered that illegal teachers strike of 2024. … We can only hope future candidates backed by the radical Massachusetts Teachers Association also bite the dust. It’s bad enough the MTA has inordinate influence over Beacon Hill pols via campaign donations and campaign field support.* This past summer the MTA announced it was getting more involved in local school committee and mayoral races as well, as the Globe reported. Just what our body politic needs: big-time polarized politics even at the local school-committee level. … Anyway, Newton voters on Tuesday obviously weren’t impressed with the MTA’s stamps of approval. Fig City News has more on the Newton elections.

* Note: To be fair, Beacon Hill lawmakers occasionally do stand up to teacher unions.