Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
Text: The single most important problem for pro-democracy forces is that too many people — especially in position of power — seem unable to truly believe that we are living in a consolidating competitive authoritarian regime. Perhaps they are too habituated to the "rules" of the system that no longer exists. Perhaps they still cling to the drug of American exceptionalism, which makes it difficult for them to accept that "it can happen here." Perhaps they understand it intellectually, but find it too difficult to make the necessary paradigm shift.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
one thing about wind and solar is they may be less susceptible to accident or sabotage than fossil fuel infrastructure. (but what about large-scale batteries?)
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
now which article of the Constitution was it that mentioned the Power to declare War? www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/u...
Trump ‘Determined’ the U.S. Is Now in a War With Drug Cartels, Congress Is Told
Link Preview: Trump ‘Determined’ the U.S. Is Now in a War With Drug Cartels, Congress Is Told
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
if the president lacks the power to do a thing but he gets away with doing it anyway, what does it even mean to say he lacks the power to do the thing?
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
my AI company will be called Monkey’s Paw.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
gender equality is something this administration on the surface disclaims, but isn’t Mike Johnson, like, a Stepford Husband?
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
am i wrong that the best outcome *politically* (not ethically) for dems is they blink, cave, but only after loudly, persistently, demanding the ACA premium subsidy extension, so that when premia skyrocket it’s salient even to low-ish information voters what happened and who the villain was?
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
they took something beautiful, something amazing, and they destroyed it. those of us who know it could rebuild it, but we are only around for so long. via @tylercowen.bsky.social www.insidehighered.com/news/governa...
Spending Soars, Rankings Fall at New College of Florida
Link Preview: Spending Soars, Rankings Fall at New College of Florida: Student outcomes and rankings are slipping at the liberal arts college while spending is up. Critics believe the college is at risk of implosion, and some are calling for privatization.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
Text: Let me say all this again: Coase developed a world-changing idea in 1937, simply by trying to think through gaps between the idealizations of economic theory and the realities of business practice; he did not publish an articulation of that idea that ‘took’ until he was 50 years old; the articulation that brought his ideas to fame was only published because a group of well-resourced academics were so convinced he was wrong; for another 30 years, his ideas were put to uses almost completely contrary to those he had intended. It is only now, 15 years after his death, over 50 years since Social Cost, and 80 years after he first developed his original insight, that we can fairly say that his ideas are being put to use in earnest.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
i must be some kind of latte-sipping elite because it is my inclination to be disdainful of any form of appliance politics.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
lying about this gives them room to concede with a claim they are not conceding, because they’ve insured that not one penny will go to “illegals”. they can pretend it is they who negotiated a concession from “far-left Democrats” and their Great Replacement army.
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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
“I want people to understand, agree or disagree with the decisions that the court reaches, that we are engaged in a legal enterprise,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett www.courthousenews.com/barrett-spur...
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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
if Republicans have any sense, they’ll concede quickly and make a big show about how they, unlike “far-left radical democrats”, value compromise and order and making things work even while they make the budget deficit an albatross around Democrats’ neck. but no one very often accuses them of sense.
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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
Text: To face this successfully may take a fundamental rethinking of the American-style political party, and a move away from a model of political consumerism - in which parties attract voters with minor message tweaks and appeals to identity and self-expression — and toward one of association, where the party is a participatory organization with purpose and structure beyond electing a handful of ambitious people to office.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
i wonder if this is the end of history because from now on historians won’t be able to distinguish real from fake sources.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
wait, so is this the purge?
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
“Remember, you’re not just performing an idea, it’s your life. It’s who you are.”
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