Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

yeah. he’s no spring chicken. thus attention to the VP pick. there’s no reason to think he’d not choose a milquetoast pre-MAGA GOP-er, if revulsion by that point didn’t compel him to do even better than that. advice and consent of a senate that would have just convicted.

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

bsky.app/profile/inte...

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

Van Hollen is clear they tried to stage a scene in which they’d be sipping margaritas by the pool, to mock human rights concerns. they refused the pool, and didn’t touch the margaritas placed before them.

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

three impeachments (Trump, Vance, Mike Johnson) gets us to Grassley, who is not great but would serve as a conventional caretaker until 2029. we’d have to pay attention to his VP pick too. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_...

Link Preview: 
United States presidential line of succession - Wikipedia

United States presidential line of succession - Wikipedia

Link Preview: United States presidential line of succession - Wikipedia
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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

i wish you sweetness in whatever form you can enjoy it.

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

look. the piety of a tart is much greater than the piety of a croissant. you don’t have to care about either one’s religion.

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

yes. and it obviously requires accelerated depreciation.

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

❤️

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

they could have just said no, leaving Van Hollen’s trip looking like a failed stunt. why didn’t they?

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

📌

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

i don’t think enough attention has been paid to the heroism of Senator Van Hollen. 1/ www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcn...

Link Preview: 
Van Hollen says Abrego Garcia was traumatized in El Salvador after mistaken deportation: Sen. Chris Van Hollen held a news conference a day after Salvadoran officials agreed to let him meet with Abrego Garcia in El Salvador.

Van Hollen says Abrego Garcia was traumatized in El Salvador after mistaken deportation

Link Preview: Van Hollen says Abrego Garcia was traumatized in El Salvador after mistaken deportation: Sen. Chris Van Hollen held a news conference a day after Salvadoran officials agreed to let him meet with Abrego Garcia in El Salvador.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

He put himself in real danger. Bukele could have locked him up on some pretext, and it’s not at all clear the US executive would have done anything about it other than smile. US courts would legit have no jurisdiction. There would just be outraged liberals. 2/

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

It remains unclear how Van Hollen succeeded at getting a meeting with Abrega Garcia after first having been refused. I don’t know how he pulled that rabbit from a hat, but I tip my hat and give him credit for it. 3/

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

Van Hollen: “If you deny the constitutional rights of one man, you threaten the constitutional rights and due process for everyone else in America.” Amen. /fin #Solidarity

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

i mean, caligula is legend…

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

impeach. convict. remove. rinse. repeat.

Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

didn’t the House declare his entire term is one day or something? promises made. promises kept.

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

would it have been Saturday in 1787? consider changes to the standard calendar, “leap” days etc.

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

China hasn’t tried and failed. China’s leaders prefer the political economy of a “lean, hungry” population and decadence-and-entitlement-inspiring demand from elsewhere. If external demand is no longer available, they’ll have to think abt how to write domestic checks while minimizing what they fear.

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

“tax cuts for lower MPCs” is a great condensation. i love making marginal propensity to consume an identity. you may be higher SES, but you are lower MPC.

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

social democrats and market socialists all want large roles for markets. why not choose either of those identifiers?

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

cc @steveroth.bsky.social

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

i have a passage about centrism, and its slippery dual meaning, in this one. drafts.interfluidity.com/2024/03/28/h...

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Text:

But wouldn't approval voting just elevate squish moderates, or even worse, Text: But wouldn't approval voting just elevate squish moderates, or even worse, "centrists"? I know, dear reader, you don't like "centrists". I detest "centrists". But what "centrism" has come to mean in American political discourse is the set of values and interests well served by the status quo, or at least the status quo as it prevailed until 2016. "Centrists" are socially liberal but fiscally conservative. "Centrists" don't want to tax billionaires, because they worry about incentives and "supply side effects" and whether soaking the rich would do "institutional violence" somehow to the country. The actual center of American opinion looks nothing at all like this. Across factional lines, taxing extraordinary wealth more heavily is close to universally popular. Only the very rich themselves, and the weird sliver of "centrists" that serves them, object. The actual center in the United States is less socially liberal on some causes than "centrists" (which is why "anti-woke" can be an effective populist strategy), but very liberal on reproductive rights, and is overwhelmingly live-and-let-live. Approval voting would give us politicians whose agendas would be better aligned with the actual center of the electorate. This would look nothing like the agenda of contemporary so-called "centrists" in politics and media.