Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

term limits are good. the legislative competence case and so-called democracy case against are incoherently inconsistent. if legislative power is let to accrue to seniority, the public may be left to choose btw a weak representative who shares their values or capable one who does not. 1/

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

no power should be allocated to seniority alone. the institutional knowledge that helps render legislators more capable should be reposed in the party, not in the person. /fin

in reply to self
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

impeach. convict. remove. rinse. repeat.

Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

considering how the film ends, i find it a bit disconcerting we seem to be living out Dr. Strangelove. but then a piece by Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor suggests maybe they have learned to love the bomb. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i... ht @hannahstoryb.bsky.social @holz-bau.bsky.social

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The rise of end times fascism | Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor: The governing ideology of the far right has become a monstrous, supremacist survivalism. Our task is to build a movement strong enough to stop them

The rise of end times fascism | Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor

Link Preview: The rise of end times fascism | Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor: The governing ideology of the far right has become a monstrous, supremacist survivalism. Our task is to build a movement strong enough to stop them
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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

kit cars! maybe the best way to buy a $24,000 Chinese EV will be to have ten parcels sent by DHL each with $2,400 of the value. (You can't use the US postal service though, then you'll get tariffed.)

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

you see, the tariffs really are reciprocal. those Canadians try to block the flow of our goods!

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

Amazon is misnamed. It suggests courageous women rather than craven men.

Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

it’s weird how you can’t see the back of the chyron.

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

it’s not just him! this is the lesson of the @semaforben.bsky.social piece, or of just interacting with MAGA-ists. they believe their memes! the “sophisticated” ones, if you call them on it, either challenge you or fall back JD-Vance-like on how creative license can call attention to a deeper truth.

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

maybe the answer is your faction should always loudly accuse the press as being and enemy and out to get you. it seems to work. they go every extra mile to prove they are evenhanded and unfairly maligned.

Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

don’t the officers participating in this risk criminal or civil liability for breaking black-letter law? sure, the President is your boss, but you have a duty not to follow illegal orders.

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

Wot?

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

never mind. keep munching.

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

our phones are trying to make themselves our spouses, completing our sentences for us when we are half way through them.

Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

maybe the faces are finally having enough of the leopards.

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

today's loss of a fighter jet off the deck of a carrier — is it a "stuff happens" event independent of the chaos Trump/Hegseth has introduced into the military, or are there plausible channels by which the fiasco resulted from the chaos at the top and center?

Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

here's a view: bsky.app/profile/coli...

in reply to self
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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

Goodhart's Law strikes again.

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

“The one thing that u should not be able to say about my work is that I am not telling u what I really think. That is the price of entry to the worthwhile part of the Ideas industry. We may be bastards, but we are not bullshitting u.” @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/ideas-that...

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Ideas That Cannot Be Spoken: Spotting cowards in the public discourse.

Ideas That Cannot Be Spoken

Link Preview: Ideas That Cannot Be Spoken: Spotting cowards in the public discourse.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

this is predictable. it is structural. the marginal voter has concerns orthogonal to the dimensions of contestation btw the parties. it's much more frequent just to care abt other things than to deeply care abt yet be perfectly balanced btw the candidates' issues. www.interfluidity.com/v2/7687.html

interfluidity » Weakness is provocative

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

this is horrifying.

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

one strange characteristic of our moment is we’ve developed new forms of a “republic of letters” whose participants view themselves as an intellectual elite, while the actual content of that elite discourse is memes or, at best, several hundred character interjections.