"I trust the marines." Who ultimately have no say in the matter, whose judgments about what they are being asked to do is ultimately private, who will do what they are ordered to do even if they consider it ill-advised.
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“Literally, White treated corporations like children whose brains were too underdeveloped to truly hold them responsible for their actions.” @ddayen.bsky.social
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failures of the neocons discredited idealism, but the current crew is managing to render publics cynical about cynicism itself. maybe there’s something hopeful in that.
having one of those days when my will is rather flagging in an optimism of the will kind of way.
“Power does not grow out of the barrel of a gun, cruelty is not the same as strength, and a politics built on such ideas promises ruin, delusion about the limits of our power and a betrayal of the promise of our founding.”
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i think we should give billionaire's kids' the benefit of the doubt and frame their pathologies for as long as remains tenable as the result of the sociopathy and sycophancy that necessary isolates and renders them collateral damage of their parents' catastrophic choices. 1/
this both because it's kind and kindness is a per se good on both sides of the equation, and because billionaire kids have excellent reason to resent their situations and some few could become useful allies in reforming the roots of what destroys them and the rest of us, in different ways. /fin
"It is not enough…to devise an agenda around a hypothetical imperial Congress. It is also necessary to rebuild the institution, enhance its esteem and transform the public’s expectations of the sources of political leadership." @jamellebouie.net brilliant as always www.nytimes.com/2026/03/21/o... 1/
Opinion | What Is the Left’s Theory of Power?
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Congress' dysfunction is endogenous to its structure in the context of a nationalized political and media environment. I think fixing Congress means reforming that structure. 2/
A minimal version of this looks like the kind of reforms @leedrutman.bsky.social proposes to "break the two party doom loop", some form of proportional representation in the House, hopefully approval voting for Senators. 3/
More out-there, but more deeply enfranchising, approaches might include a massively larger House of Representatives, whose deliberations are made practical by technical means. See e.g. me www.interfluidity.com/v2/9069.html (I have some other weird ideas I hope to write up soon.) /fin
the "petrodollar" at this point is based on the fact that US-produced oil and gas is paid for in dollars to US concerns that hold primarily dollars much more than on anything that other petrostates do or might choose not to do.
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
Link Preview: Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump): Robert Mueller just died. Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people! President DONALD J. TRUMP
finally, an answer to this question. www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0aK...
Where’s the Beef? 40th Anniversary
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absolutely.
global antisemitism and the price of gas and oil are going to be tightly coupled for the next while.
AIPAC is shitty but not special. it is similar in shittiness to crypto PACs, the NRA (before it became a soap opera), and the Cuban-American lobby.
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it’s not even fake news. it’s fake fake news.
it’s hard to wake up to all this.
With apologies to Joan Robinson, the only thing worse than being exploited in the capitalist system by overwork is being exploited in the capitalist system by underwork. See (my sister) @adellewaldman.bsky.social and Matt Bruenig www.peoplespolicyproject.org/project/a-ri...
A Right to Full-Time Scheduling
Link Preview: A Right to Full-Time Scheduling: A policy for pushing back against the scourge of involuntary part-time jobs.
his face is that way because they are commemorating his capacity to keep his cool while he is shitting his pants on live television.
i really feel for the kids on transports now towards the middle east. it’s one thing to be deployed — that’s part of the job, what you signed up for. 1/
but it’s another thing, an unexpected thing, to be deployed under circumstances of manifest improvisation and incompetence and perhaps indifference to your welfare. 2/
say what you will about the US military, but until recently you could take for granted operational competence and and a posture of protectiveness toward military lives. /fin
golden age.
“Folks, it isn’t looking good.”
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