Poll after poll shows the same thing. The American people know that the current economic system is rigged

The media pundits have written article after article desperately trying to understand why progressive candidates, despite being heavily outspent, keep defeating establishment Democrats in primaries around the country. Well, the answer is not complicated.

Whether it is a corrupt campaign finance system, unprecedented income and wealth inequality, a broken and wildly expensive healthcare system, the enormous threats posed by AI or an immoral and destructive foreign policy, progressives are talking about the real issues facing working families. And they are providing real solutions. Establishment Democrats are not.

The dangers of AI become clearer every day. Why are we still acting as if we have no choice about our future?

Rather than producing jobs, the US economy actually lost 23,000 jobs in July, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released on Friday. In addition, May and June’s job numbers were revised downward, showing a combined 103,000 fewer jobs than previously reported.

As if this weren’t bad enough, wage growth has also slowed. Average hourly earnings rose by just 0.1% from June.

Amid public concern over the impact of new technology, Silicon Valley’s use of its wealth to influence specific election races is an unwelcome development

As the huge societal ramifications of artificial intelligence have become clear, some of the tech industry’s most senior figures have taken to writing thinkpieces on what comes next. The latest to do so is Mark Zuckerberg, who this week published 6,500 words making the case for a laissez-faire approach to AI development. Worrying too much about regulation, Meta’s CEO unsurprisingly opines, could lead to the United States falling behind in the race to own the future.

Mr Zuckerberg’s plea for maximum autonomy is, of course, self-serving. Much of his essay – which airily envisions “invention superpowers” for every entrepreneur and “an abundance of jobs in the future” – reads like unadulterated tech-utopianism. But the lobbying at least has the merit of being out there in the open. As midterm elections loom in the US, darker arts are also being used to counter popular concern about what AI will mean for a host of topics, from the labour market to child safety, the environment and cybersecurity.