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okaytrouble.bsky.social
@okaytrouble.bsky.social
at best
Reposted
this is one of the things that's most viscerally like, un- or even anti-keynesian about the way the goals of capital-A Abundance are structured
An implicit assumption of Abundance is that out-migration from places with too few jobs relative to people will help those left behind. But while this helps the out-migrants, this out-migration will not improve economic or social conditions in distressed places.
September 2, 2025 at 4:01 PM
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Also be prepared for the fact that this could be for all the marbles. Be prepared to pass rapid impeachment and removal of Trump & Vance, to swear in Jeffries as Acting President, and request Spanberger and Moore to send in the VA and MD National Guard.
August 27, 2025 at 5:49 AM
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John Roberts is not "rebuking" Donald Trump. He's bending the knee. If you listen to what Roberts is *not* saying, you'll see he's telling Trump exactly what he wants to hear.
We've seen this before from another Chief Justice, in Marbury v. Madison.
My latest in @thenation.com
How a Case From 1803 Explains John Roberts’s Approach to Donald Trump
Roberts wasn’t “rebuking” Trump when he issued his statement against impeaching judges, he was bending the knee.
www.thenation.com
March 20, 2025 at 2:05 PM
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here is the thing, if you are thinking pragmatically, the response to trans health bans is to change the subject! “these people are targeting children so they can con you into stealing your social security and health care.” easy peasy! need a specific answer: “keep the government out of my family.”
March 3, 2025 at 2:00 PM
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an accurate description of donald trump's character is per se libel. an accurate description of his policies is a call for revolution. one of his great superpowers is that he generates self-censoring facts.
even with a single layer of indirection, talking about this seems unsafe, but the entire rule limiting how heated rhetoric can get serves as a curb on discussing what is happening honestly.
February 21, 2025 at 6:48 PM
If enough of them would agree to go into hiding for a while democrats could put an end to this nightmare. Just crawl under a rock for your country, for humanity.
February 20, 2025 at 2:05 AM
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This goes hard
January 26, 2025 at 10:27 PM
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I don’t know precisely what Trump will say in his inaugural, but it will certainly be a bunch of insincere nonsense, delivered with ulterior motives. That’s enough for Democrats to offer a useful prebuttal—if they want to. www.offmessage.net/p/prebut-don...
January 17, 2025 at 5:29 PM
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Here’s a way for Dems to give an ethical form of populism and demagoguery a trial run: instead of playing savvy games vis a vis RFK, try just saying what makes him repulsive: he’s a scumbag who preys on innocent people and has cost many of them their lives.
More On Ethical Populism
The sweet spot lies in demagogic appeals that can withstand factual scrutiny.
www.offmessage.net
December 18, 2024 at 6:30 PM
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what i fundamentally do not understand about this is that when we observe actual campaigns what we clearly see is that perceived moderation is only modestly about substance and a great deal about affect and appearance
Yglesias has another long post today, arguing that Harris/Walz’s immaculate campaign vibes are *actually* a sign of overcautious campaigning because they aren’t picking internal fights with the left to appeal to moderates.

And (1) 🙄

But also (2) he doesn’t get *why* vibes are such an asset.
August 19, 2024 at 1:42 PM
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Seeing Like a Matt. The intellectual blind spots of anti-anti-neoliberalism. www.programmablemutter.com/p/seeing-lik...
Seeing Like a Matt
The intellectual blind spots of anti-anti-neoliberalism
www.programmablemutter.com
August 12, 2024 at 11:57 AM
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The thing these burnout leftist morons don't understand is that a big part of the reason the pro-Hamas shit pisses me off is *because this shit really fucking matters*
July 25, 2024 at 6:04 PM
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jesus if things keep up at this pace trump is gonna start shopping around for incels to shoot him in the ear again
July 22, 2024 at 9:59 PM
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righteous fury always tries to be as effective as possible, whereas wrapping your rudeness in ideology doesn't, which makes it easier to tell the difference between the two than a lot of people realize
July 16, 2024 at 3:53 PM
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This will be one about hope, though maybe not "hope" as it is usually meant.

Hope is a defiant act taken against those who would sabotage any act of reparation—and sabotaging repair is exactly what fascism does.

For this reason, hope is what is needed right now.

www.the-reframe.com/a-fools-hope/
A Fool's Hope
How to be hopeful people in this age of deliberate ignorance, empty optimism, lazy cynicism, and manufactured despair. A more useful definition of hope than these false ones we're offered.
www.the-reframe.com
July 5, 2024 at 3:30 PM
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hey Joe I am aware of some Laws that are not being faithfully executed can you please intervene on my behalf thanks
Chief Justice Roberts decrees the end of DOJ independence in an offhanded sentence on page 20.
July 1, 2024 at 3:49 PM
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And rightly so: The GOP is now a cult. The Democrats are a coalition. Cults don't chance and won't respond to external pressures. Coalitions are fragile and have to be nimble. That's just how it is for now.
A few years ago, Jon Lovett floated a theory that media treats Democrats like protagonists - to be challenged, accounted, and forced to be behave in growth-oriented ways - while the GOP are treated like antagonists - immutable, expected to disrupt, thematic obstacles.

Thinking about that a lot.
I don’t recall the NYT calling for Trump to step down after being convicted of 34 counts of fraud and being called by a judge at his civil trial a rapist in the common person sense
June 29, 2024 at 4:56 PM
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This guy called it
June 29, 2024 at 1:52 AM
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For real though if I was a poor ass Toad living in the Mushroom Kingdom and saw Mario playing tennis with Bowser I’d be like “despite their pretend disagreements there really is only the uniparty”
June 13, 2024 at 8:51 PM
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Democrats have had a hard time adjusting to the the new right over many years now. And I think an unappreciated reason is that their impulse to chase the median vote typically wins out, even when doing so runs them into the pitfall of right-wing sabotage.
Can Democrats Ever Learn From Experience?
When the "safe" middle path leads directly into a brick wall of right-wing sabotage, liberals will march down it anyhow.
www.offmessage.net
May 13, 2024 at 4:41 PM
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The incentives here for Bibi/Likud are just fantastic.

1) If Trump is president, you get whatever you want.

2) If a Democrat is president, you get whatever you want from Congress while his coalition peels apart over Israel and Trump comes back. www.nytimes.com/2023/12/19/u...
How Much Is Biden’s Support of Israel Hurting Him With Young Voters?
Donald Trump leads him among those 18 to 29, a new poll shows.
www.nytimes.com
December 19, 2023 at 1:37 PM