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Ray Bray

@gibbers.bsky.social

I’m not dismissing this but I do think we need to acknowledge that people had explosive wage growth in 2020 (due to CARES ofc).

I think it’s believable that the income surge, followed by YoY stagnation, inflation and the general problems of the attention economy put the electorate in a bad place.

July 24, 2025 at 12:58 AM

Ray Bray

@gibbers.bsky.social

I'd also add that Lincoln's first inaugural, given December 1861, highlights how free labor and slavery cannot coexist while emphasizing that capital is derived from labor and, therefore, labor should have a higher position millercenter.org/the-presiden...

Now there is no such relation between capital and labor as assumed, nor is there any such thing as a free man being fixed for life in the condition of a hired laborer. Both these assumptions are false, and all inferences from them are groundless.

Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital producing mutual benefits. The error is in assuming that the whole labor of community exists within that relation. A few men own capital, and that few avoid labor themselves, and with their capital hire or buy another few to labor for them. A large majority belong to neither class--neither work for others nor have others working for them. In most of the Southern States a majority of the whole people of all colors are neither slaves nor masters, while in the Northern a large majority are neither hirers nor hired. Men, with their families--wives, sons, and daughters--work for themselves on their farms, in their houses, and in their shops, taking the whole product to themselves, and asking no favors of capital on the one hand nor of hired laborers or slaves on the other. It is not forgotten that a considerable number of persons mingle their own labor with capital; that is, they labor with their own hands and also buy or hire others to labor for them; but this is only a mixed and not a distinct class. No principle stated is disturbed by the existence of this mixed class.

Again, as has already been said, there is not of necessity any such thing as the free hired laborer being fixed to that condition for life. Many independent men everywhere in these States a few years back in their lives were hired laborers. The prudent, penniless begin…

July 21, 2025 at 3:58 PM

Ray Bray

@gibbers.bsky.social

RETVRN

Scan of a modular home in a SEARS Roebuck catalogue somewhere between 1908 - 1940.

July 2, 2025 at 9:00 PM

Ray Bray

@gibbers.bsky.social

A very core part of evangelical Christianity is the idea that the children submit to the mother, who submits to the husband, who submits to the church - and there is no sense that that submission ever ends even after the child grows up.

Stacked umbrella that shows CHRIST at the top, followed by the Husband, who is to "protect and provide for the family" followed by the wife who is to "manage the home" and protect the "children"

June 27, 2025 at 5:36 PM

Ray Bray

@gibbers.bsky.social

Matt Bruenig had alluded that this artificial tension was likely due to competition over scarce donors and honestly it really does feel that way considering how wildly off-base the anti-abundance folks are.

Excerpt from Matt Bruenig's review of Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson:

"Other critics of the book raise similar concerns about their agendas being sidelined. This has mostly come from antitrust advocates who managed to successfully fight their way to the top of the progressive economic agenda after the prior focuses on Bernie-style welfare statism and macroeconomic stimulus faded. Klein and Thompson don’t appear to say anything about antitrust in the book, neither to discuss its policy merits nor to use it as a contrast to the abundance agenda. The only overlap seems to come when the authors pan a local San Francisco procurement regulation requiring that public money flow to small construction firms. Nonetheless, because it is the reigning top dog, antitrust advocates are right to worry that they have the most to lose if the narratives and policy focuses of Abundance become dominant. (As Dylan Gyauch-Lewis notes, we are already seeing hundreds of millions of dollars and tons of new organizations being established, all aimed at achieving this task.)"

May 29, 2025 at 3:04 PM

Ray Bray

@gibbers.bsky.social

"We can't really know how and if AI models can and will be manipulated in subtle ways to push the founder & CEO's intent and that's terrifying"

Grok: My boss is making me saying this:

Screenshot from "The Boys" of Anya Cash's "stormfront" telling a young boy about the "white genocide" conspiracy theory.

May 15, 2025 at 2:17 PM

Ray Bray

@gibbers.bsky.social

It’s also an on the nose representation for how MAGA will destroy you as an individual so that you fill your role.

House of Representatives photo of Kristi Noem from 2011

May 15, 2025 at 1:04 PM

Ray Bray

@gibbers.bsky.social

Yeah this is the Matt Bruenig argument mattbruenig.com/2025/03/11/y...

Per my usual bit, I’ll end here by just pointing out that if you install egalitarian economic institutions that result in a compressed distribution of income and wealth, the precise regional and sectoral composition of the economy becomes much less important. During trade liberalization, US output per capita did not decrease. In fact, it increased. It is the refusal to use economic institutions that ensure that these increases are broadly distributed that is ultimately the problem.

May 12, 2025 at 3:55 PM

Ray Bray

@gibbers.bsky.social

A symbol the good people of Massachusetts 8th can rally behind....

April 30, 2025 at 7:14 PM

Ray Bray

@gibbers.bsky.social

Oregon no longer requires a law school graduate to take the bar exam to become an attorney. My question is why even require them to have J.D.? Seems like a non-degree holder could accomplish this as well. elkhornmediagroup.com/das-office-o...

They must pass rigorous hurdles prior to being approved by the Oregon Bar Association. Applicants must complete at least 675 hours of legal work under the supervision of a licensed Oregon attorney. They must submit at least eight pieces of written legal work product, conduct at least two negotiations and two client interviews or counseling sessions, and complete additional learning covering legal ethics and other topics.

April 22, 2025 at 6:24 PM

Ray Bray

@gibbers.bsky.social

I could be true that was Astead saw was organic reaction, but this feels like a comment from the NYT National Politics Reporter that really deserve more interrogation

Tweet from Astead Herndon, from June 12, 2024: Three times a week I log on Twitter, get yelled at for saying Biden's age is his fundamental political liability in this election, and then scroll passed approx 750 viral memes of the President characterized as senile. it's truly incredible

April 21, 2025 at 2:07 PM

Ray Bray

@gibbers.bsky.social

What's really killing me is that attitudes towards immigrants reversed dramatically under Trump 1 and it's just not happening. We need to have a positive position that making it easier for immigrants to become citizens is pro-worker but even in the face of the horrors people aren't changing.

April 18, 2025 at 2:15 PM

Ray Bray

@gibbers.bsky.social

Young Dem polarized against Israel: “Yeah alright that’s probably a reaction to the past few years.”

Young Republican polarized against Israel…

Tom Wamsburg from Succession interviewing a neo-nazi and asking “just to fend this off, have you ever read Mein Kampf.”

April 14, 2025 at 11:59 PM

Ray Bray

@gibbers.bsky.social

For me it’s this one

April 12, 2025 at 6:42 PM

Ray Bray

@gibbers.bsky.social

Why yes Mr. Fain, in theory, companies with a significant profit margin could absorb the cost of the tariff without passing it to consumers. But it's not a reliable calculation and is far more likely to backfire. Let's check in real quick with General Mo-oh....oh dear.