'Hip-deep in stupid'

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“Donald Trump is a socialist,” wrote conservative columnist Kevin Williamson in The Dispatch last spring. “I do not use the word the way most right-leaning commentators use it, meaning: bad. If you want to get a feel for exactly how insipid and repetitious the contemporary online right is, do a search for ‘cackling socialist’…. You’ll be hip-deep in stupid in two clicks.”

That’s an apt description of the local right’s excitement last week over Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s endorsement of self-described “Democrat socialist” Zohran Mamdani’s candidacy for mayor of New York City. The breathless question in one headline: “Is Elizabeth Warren a closet socialist?” (As if the relentlessly outspoken senator could ever be a “closet” anything.) Warren “has now admitted that this is the future of the Democratic party and it is socialism,” State GOP Chair Amy Carnevale told the choir on Fox.

This will excite the Fox News demo, sending them wheeling over to the window to yell at the socialists to get off their lawn. But for Democrats desperate to re-energize their base and recapture their edge with younger voters, it’s not as slanderous as the right-wingers hope. A recent Cato Institute poll found more than six in ten 18-to-29-year-olds and nearly seven in ten Democrats had a favorable opinion of socialism.

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2:00 | Congressman Seth Moulton joins volunteers at nonprofit Beverly Bootstraps, where he plans to help assemble bags of fresh produce and pantry staples for delivery to the Council on Aging for seniors. A press availability will follow. | Beverly Bootstraps, 198 Rantoul St., Beverly

3:00 | Gov. Maura Healey attends event to celebrate reopening of Natick Center Station, which was closed until late July after receiving accessibility upgrades. She’ll be joined by Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt, MBTA General Manager Phil Eng, Senate President Karen Spilka and others. | 1 Walnut Street, Natick

5:00 | African American Policy Forum hosts a panel discussion titled "Preemptive Alliances: Black Attorneys General On The Frontlines for Civil Rights." Attorney General Andrea Campbell participates alongside Minnesota AG Keith Ellison, New York AG Letitia James and others. | Union Chapel, 55 Narragansett Ave., Oak Bluffs | Livestream

This week Social Security turns 90. Nearly one in five Massachusetts residents - 1,324,309 people - receives Social Security payments. These payments inject $28.4 billion into the state’s economy every year. AARP will never stop fighting to protect the Social Security payments you earned. Learn More aarp.org/ma #WeEarnedIt

The Massachusetts political sphere was rocked just after 10:45 am Friday, when the office of the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts blasted out a press release and posted to social media news of the indictment of Suffolk County Sheriff Steve Tompkins. He is charged with alleged extortion that involved purchase of equity interest in a cannabis company. The company is unnamed in the indictment, but details appear to line up with Boston-based Ascend, as the Boston Globe’s Adrian Walker observed.

The 67-year-old politician, who was first tapped 12 years ago for the job by then-Gov. Deval Patrick, is a fixture of local politics. He worked on Elizabeth Warren’s 2012 U.S. Senate campaign, chaired future mayor Michelle Wu’s run for 2013 City Council At-Large, and campaigned alongside Gov. Maura Healey. (He is also the chair of the Roxbury Community College board of trustees.)

The question of whether Tompkins, who won a six-year term in 2022, will resign remained unanswered heading into the week. The Globe reported that the Supreme Judicial Court has ruled in a previous case that if a sheriff won’t resign, it’s either up to the high court or voters to remove him or “place him on leave.” Gov. Healey and Attorney General Andrea Campbell can choose to petition for his removal, the Globe added.

Regardless of whichever scenario plays out, the several names of potential contenders getting floated for the job this weekend include South Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn and state Rep. Chris Worrell of Dorchester. Will Stephen Murphy, a former Boston city councilor who has been embalmed in the Suffolk register of deeds office since he was elected in 2016, take another shot at the office? We may get an answer to that question and the others in the days to come. - Gintautas Dumcius

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MASS CASH: Gambling firms Aristocrat of Australia and longtime Massachusetts Lottery vendor Scientific Games are angling for the big contract to run the new iLottery system, which is already behind schedule for launch. – Contrarian Boston

ABOVE BENCHMARK: The fiscal year 2025 budget cycle ended with $43.7 billion in tax collections, up 7.1% over the previous fiscal year, and clearing the benchmark by 5.1%. The numbers are largely thanks to the millionaires surtax and capital gains tax revenues. – State House News Service

TARIFF TALK: Local construction contractors say tariffs are creating uncertainty, adding to the volatility of their businesses, and sidelining some projects. – Boston Business Journal

MEASLES TREATMENT: The rise of measles has some scientists looking at drugs that could prevent or treat the disease in unvaccinated people. One Mass.-based drugmaker is working on a monoclonal antibody. – Wall Street Journal

GREEN ACRES: Conservation group the Trustees of Reservations, run by a former Charlie Baker environmental official, plans to focus on the Berkshires and Western Massachusetts, and increase the lands under its aegis by 25 percent, or 12,000 acres. – Berkshire Eagle

PILGRIM’S PROGRESS: Mark Pothier, who left the Globe to help launch the Plymouth Independent as its executive editor, is stepping aside from the job as the nonprofit news outlet launches a search for a new editor, as well as a chief development officer. He plans to stay on as a staff reporter. – Media Nation

CAMPUS CLOSURE: The closure of the Bard College at Simon’s Rock campus in Great Barrington is drawing a group of alumni and nonprofit leaders who are interested in purchasing the property. – MassLive

Another challenger for U.S. Sen. Ed Markey?

Berkshire rail service canceled through at least Nov. 30, per Amtrak

Provincetown wharf for sale

Herald’s high school ‘godfather’ calls it a career

New Bedford residents protest proposed waste transfer station

Law enforcement investigates third bomb threat at Nantucket business

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