Podbit · Up First from NPR
Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old first-time candidate, defeated Diana DeGette — a Denver congresswoman who has held her seat since 1997, the year Kiros was born. The win is the latest sign that the anti-establishment wave is powerful enough to topple even respected progressives.
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At 6:56 · chapter starts 5:43
NPR political reporter Elena Moore surveys the fast-moving landscape of the Democratic Socialists of America's primary surge. After wins in New York City, DSA-backed candidates scored again in Denver, where first-time candidate Melat Kiros — 29 years old, born in 1997, the very year her opponent Diana DeGette first won her seat — defeated the longtime progressive incumbent [1] — Elena Moore "Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old first-time candidate, defeated Diana DeGette — a Denver congresswoman who has held her seat since 1997, the year…" 06:56 . The DSA is not a political party but a membership group; its candidates run as Democrats and have coalesced around economic populism, abolishing ICE, and ending US military aid to Israel. They also reject corporate PAC money and pro-Israel lobbying donations — and make a point of attacking opponents who don't. Centrist Democrats are alarmed: Matt Bennett of Third Way warned that it is now 'very hard for Democrats to distinguish themselves' from the extreme label, even if they don't formally embrace DSA [2] — Elena Moore "Democrats not aligned with DSA now face a bind: tap into the same anti-establishment energy without being painted as socialist extremists. …" 08:00 . Meanwhile, DSA congressional winner Claire Valdez pushed back, arguing the movement reflects broad national consensus around recentering working-class Americans. With Trump already labeling the movement 'communists,' the challenge for mainstream Democrats is clear: how to tap populist energy without inheriting an unwinnable brand war.
DSA-backed candidates have won high-profile primaries in New York and Colorado by combining economic populism with hard-left positions — rejecting corporate PACs, calling for abolishing ICE, and ending US military aid to Israel. It's a formula energizing voters in deep-blue areas, even as centrist Democrats fear it will cost them swing seats.
Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old first-time candidate, unseated Diana DeGette who has served in Congress since 1997 — the year Kiros was born.
Diana DeGette, unseated in the Denver primary, has been in Congress since 1997.
Democrats not aligned with DSA now face a bind: tap into the same anti-establishment energy without being painted as socialist extremists. Matt Bennett of Third Way warns it's 'very hard to distinguish yourself' — and the GOP is already calling every Democrat a communist.
Fei-Fei Li went back to Stanford from Google in 2018 specifically to build a multi-stakeholder governance framework for AI. Her argument: market forces are not societal norms. Just as biology uses IRBs and cars have safety laws, AI needs layered oversight from educators, governments, and the public — not just a few industry titans.
Andrew Santino's personal MCU of political villains is collapsing. He and Bobby speculated that a circulating photo of Mitch McConnell with a Chinese official was AI-generated compositing two separate images.
Mass surveillance is here to stay. The real battle isn't stopping cameras — it's ensuring judges and laws keep that data out of family court and civil disputes, admitting it only for violent crimes and national security. The surveillance economy currently yields more upside than downside, but only if we build the legal guardrails now.
When people cite Scandinavia as proof socialism works, Galloway says they've got it backwards. Northern Europe runs highly competitive free-market economies with more competition in many sectors than the US — they just make sure taxes are actually paid and redistributed. Billionaires and universal healthcare can coexist.
Two percent adjustments to income tax and stamp duty tweaks are deck-chair rearrangements. The UK's competitiveness hinges on four structural levers: currency valuation, energy costs, regulatory burden, and tax rates. Devalue the pound, build 56 nuclear plants, slash red tape, introduce a flat tax — and the country transforms.
Lisbon had one of Europe's worst heroin crises. Then Portugal legalised drugs and redirected all enforcement money into rehabilitation and housing. Crime collapsed. Addiction fell. Then politics moved the money elsewhere, and the problem started creeping back. Chesterton's Fence: you forget why you were spending that money.
Congress passed the Boland Amendment 411 to 0, explicitly banning CIA and Defense Department funds for the Contras. Reagan signed it — then immediately moved the operation deeper underground, essentially responding to a bipartisan prohibition by going more illegal.
The CIA planted mines in Nicaraguan commercial harbors, wrote the Contras' press releases taking credit, and promptly blew up ships from four allied nations. The Wall Street Journal broke the story, Congress erupted, and the Boland Amendments multiplied.
Oliver North was a decorated Marine and devout Catholic with zero covert operations experience. He ran the entire shadow war against Congress — planes, airstrips, arms shipments, shell companies — learning on the job. And by every operational measure, he crushed it.
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