Left Anchor
@leftanchor.bsky.social
A podcast about politics, philosophy, and the left. https://www.patreon.com/leftanchor
Reposted by Left Anchor
they understand insurance. the entire premise of libertarian opposition to mandatory insurance is that they should not have to care about anyone else and be permitted to take risks. it's the same opposition to vaccination and taxation.
they are bad neighbors.
they are bad neighbors.
Tell me you don’t understand risk pools without telling me you don’t understand risk pools
November 10, 2025 at 4:32 PM
they understand insurance. the entire premise of libertarian opposition to mandatory insurance is that they should not have to care about anyone else and be permitted to take risks. it's the same opposition to vaccination and taxation.
they are bad neighbors.
they are bad neighbors.
Reposted by Left Anchor
I made a first stab at this argument here: eu.boell.org/en/climate-p...
Climate Policy from a Keynesian Point of View | Heinrich Böll Stiftung | Brussels office - European Union
People may arrive in one or the other of these camps for many reasons. Advocates of the investment-centred approach tend to link climate policy to broader concerns over economic justice. Developments ...
eu.boell.org
November 10, 2025 at 4:22 PM
I made a first stab at this argument here: eu.boell.org/en/climate-p...
Reposted by Left Anchor
just to clarify (and kevin knows this so don’t @ him) call no matter who your senators are. the caucus will pay attention to backlash
Call the United States Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and they will connect you with your senator's office.
If you're represented by one of the squishier centrists, be sure to make a call. Now.
If you're represented by one of the squishier centrists, be sure to make a call. Now.
Sounds like the squishes in the senate caucus are ready to pull the plug with no ACA changes. This is real. If you want to register your opinion you shld call yr senator in the next hour. They not only want to reopen w/nothing. They want cover from their colleagues who still want to hold out.
November 9, 2025 at 9:18 PM
just to clarify (and kevin knows this so don’t @ him) call no matter who your senators are. the caucus will pay attention to backlash
Reposted by Left Anchor
Reposted by Left Anchor
So it turns out... the US air travel system was incredibly, deeply dependent on federal funding to just run day-to-day all this time, to the benefit of private airline shareholders, when everyone thinks that state-run trains are leeching off the government. Weird!
November 9, 2025 at 12:10 AM
So it turns out... the US air travel system was incredibly, deeply dependent on federal funding to just run day-to-day all this time, to the benefit of private airline shareholders, when everyone thinks that state-run trains are leeching off the government. Weird!
Reposted by Left Anchor
Did I use my newsletter for some self-promotion? Yes. Am I also making the urgent case that Trump is returning to an early-20th Century style of militarized imperialism at home and abroad? Also yes. Do I wish my book was a lot less relevant? Every day.
theracket.news/p/it-wasn-t-...
theracket.news/p/it-wasn-t-...
It wasn't supposed to be a playbook!
Glad everyone's enjoying my history of American empire. Please stop reenacting it.
theracket.news
November 8, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Did I use my newsletter for some self-promotion? Yes. Am I also making the urgent case that Trump is returning to an early-20th Century style of militarized imperialism at home and abroad? Also yes. Do I wish my book was a lot less relevant? Every day.
theracket.news/p/it-wasn-t-...
theracket.news/p/it-wasn-t-...
Reposted by Left Anchor
I actually think what ICE is doing under Trump 2.0 is shaping up to be a world-historic campaign of human rights violations in an advanced industrialized ~democracy
I’m not sure I have many modern parallels. Japanese internment? Treatment of French-Algerians in the Algerian war? Those were wartime.
I’m not sure I have many modern parallels. Japanese internment? Treatment of French-Algerians in the Algerian war? Those were wartime.
"When I picked up my granddaughter from the federal agents, she had a dirty diaper, a bruise on her face, and was developing a rash. She was exhausted and cried… My heart aches knowing this could happen to others, to my kids, or even me, despite being U.S. citizens.”
November 8, 2025 at 7:34 PM
I actually think what ICE is doing under Trump 2.0 is shaping up to be a world-historic campaign of human rights violations in an advanced industrialized ~democracy
I’m not sure I have many modern parallels. Japanese internment? Treatment of French-Algerians in the Algerian war? Those were wartime.
I’m not sure I have many modern parallels. Japanese internment? Treatment of French-Algerians in the Algerian war? Those were wartime.
Reposted by Left Anchor
Buddy if this goes into 2026 there isn’t gonna be a federal government left to reopen.
GOP SEN. JOHN KENNEDY: It may be 2026 when we'll come out of the shutdown.
REPORTERS: 😳
KENNEDY: I'm not kidding, you guys. I mean, you see what I see. Okay? This shutdown is going to last a long time. What's going to get us out of it?
REPORTERS: 😳
KENNEDY: I'm not kidding, you guys. I mean, you see what I see. Okay? This shutdown is going to last a long time. What's going to get us out of it?
November 8, 2025 at 5:35 AM
Buddy if this goes into 2026 there isn’t gonna be a federal government left to reopen.
Reposted by Left Anchor
If you want to give yourself a stroke, watch 5 minutes of any congressional hearing about payday lenders bsky.app/profile/prop...
The Flex Loan, a new type of payday loan pioneered by Advance Financial in Tennessee, allows residents to borrow up to $4,000 at a 279.5% interest rate.
It has burdened low-income borrowers while generating huge profits for lenders.
(Published May with @tennesseelookout.com)
It has burdened low-income borrowers while generating huge profits for lenders.
(Published May with @tennesseelookout.com)
This Lender Said Its Loans Would Help Tennesseans. It Has Sued More Than 110,000 of Them.
The Flex Loan, a type of payday loan pioneered by Advance Financial, has burdened low-income borrowers while generating huge profits for lenders. Tennessee lawmakers declined to rein in the lending bu...
www.propublica.org
November 8, 2025 at 4:15 AM
If you want to give yourself a stroke, watch 5 minutes of any congressional hearing about payday lenders bsky.app/profile/prop...
Reposted by Left Anchor
"We would rather be ruined than changed;
We would rather die in our dread
Than climb the cross of the moment
And let our illusions die."
—W. H. Auden, The Age of Anxiety
We would rather die in our dread
Than climb the cross of the moment
And let our illusions die."
—W. H. Auden, The Age of Anxiety
November 7, 2025 at 5:12 AM
"We would rather be ruined than changed;
We would rather die in our dread
Than climb the cross of the moment
And let our illusions die."
—W. H. Auden, The Age of Anxiety
We would rather die in our dread
Than climb the cross of the moment
And let our illusions die."
—W. H. Auden, The Age of Anxiety
Reposted by Left Anchor
Every Trump- and Bush-appointed justice is a bayonet through the throat of a hungry child
November 8, 2025 at 3:22 AM
Every Trump- and Bush-appointed justice is a bayonet through the throat of a hungry child
Reposted by Left Anchor
The wording of this is highly unusual, and suggests that Justice Jackson is expecting the First Circuit to rule on a stay pending appeal (a longer pause of the district court's order) in the next few days.
I'll have more to say about this in "One First" as soon as I can write it up.
I'll have more to say about this in "One First" as soon as I can write it up.
November 8, 2025 at 3:06 AM
Reposted by Left Anchor
I think what is happening here is that Jackson is doing the 48hr pausing so the First Circuit (hopefully) declines to place a stay pending appeal (which would be a longer stay) and then the Court will be in the tougher position of delaying SNAP for a longer stay period.
#BREAKING: Justice Jackson has issued an "administrative" stay, temporarily pausing a district court order that would've required the USDA to continue using contingency funds to pay SNAP benefits.
The stay expires 48 hours after the First Circuit rules on USDA's request for a stay pending appeal.
The stay expires 48 hours after the First Circuit rules on USDA's request for a stay pending appeal.
November 8, 2025 at 3:05 AM
Reposted by Left Anchor
what's there to say, really?
This just into the newsroom
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court issues emergency order temporarily blocking full SNAP food aid payments.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court issues emergency order temporarily blocking full SNAP food aid payments.
November 8, 2025 at 2:46 AM
what's there to say, really?
Reposted by Left Anchor
since chatgpt has coached another young person in a mental health crisis to their death, I am yet again tapping the sign
November 7, 2025 at 10:59 AM
since chatgpt has coached another young person in a mental health crisis to their death, I am yet again tapping the sign
Reposted by Left Anchor
This has not gotten much attention, but it should.
Virginia under Youngkin returned to an insanely harsh system where people convicted of any felony lose their voting rights FOR LIFE.
Dems' win this week mean they'll get to advance a constitutional amendment to end lifetime disenfranchisement.
Virginia under Youngkin returned to an insanely harsh system where people convicted of any felony lose their voting rights FOR LIFE.
Dems' win this week mean they'll get to advance a constitutional amendment to end lifetime disenfranchisement.
November 7, 2025 at 8:59 PM
This has not gotten much attention, but it should.
Virginia under Youngkin returned to an insanely harsh system where people convicted of any felony lose their voting rights FOR LIFE.
Dems' win this week mean they'll get to advance a constitutional amendment to end lifetime disenfranchisement.
Virginia under Youngkin returned to an insanely harsh system where people convicted of any felony lose their voting rights FOR LIFE.
Dems' win this week mean they'll get to advance a constitutional amendment to end lifetime disenfranchisement.
Reposted by Left Anchor
fresh @leftanchor.bsky.social episode, we are talking about Zohran and the rest of the blue wave: www.leftanchor.com/e/the-2025-b...
The 2025 Blue Wave - 372 | Left Anchor
Zohran Mamdani won in New York City, and so did Democrats in New Jersey, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and even Mississippi. What happened and why? We dig in.
Check out Ryan's articles on Zohran and Chuck S...
www.leftanchor.com
November 7, 2025 at 6:29 PM
fresh @leftanchor.bsky.social episode, we are talking about Zohran and the rest of the blue wave: www.leftanchor.com/e/the-2025-b...
Reposted by Left Anchor
Off the top of my head: Tlaib, Omar, Watson-Coleman, Pocan, and maybe Grijalva once sworn in? A handful of others are not outwardly pro-BDS but are anti anti BDS, such as AOC, Jayapal, Carson etc.
How many congresspeople are pro-BDS?
November 7, 2025 at 9:32 PM
Off the top of my head: Tlaib, Omar, Watson-Coleman, Pocan, and maybe Grijalva once sworn in? A handful of others are not outwardly pro-BDS but are anti anti BDS, such as AOC, Jayapal, Carson etc.
Reposted by Left Anchor
It's an industry term for cattle cut into large pieces to make it easier to ship in containers. Fun fact, during WWII the Australians pioneered "telescoped meat" to save even more space by, I quote, "cutting carcasses through the middle and shoving one half into the stomach cavity of the other."
What the hell is Boxed Beef
November 7, 2025 at 9:29 PM
It's an industry term for cattle cut into large pieces to make it easier to ship in containers. Fun fact, during WWII the Australians pioneered "telescoped meat" to save even more space by, I quote, "cutting carcasses through the middle and shoving one half into the stomach cavity of the other."
Reposted by Left Anchor
The federal government is putting its full weight behind purging Black people from public life and the press and opposition party is silent as it does so.
“The Committee’s unfounded accusations, dependence on clearly compromised sources, and selective presentation of ‘evidence’ represent an unprecedented abuse of congressional power—designed not to find the truth, but to silence leadership that refuses to yield to political pressure.”
— GMU-AAUP
— GMU-AAUP
Congress Accuses GMU President of Lying About DEI Efforts
The GOP-led House Judiciary Committee accused George Mason University's president of lying about DEI practices and likely violating civil rights laws. He has denied the claims.
www.insidehighered.com
November 7, 2025 at 8:00 PM
The federal government is putting its full weight behind purging Black people from public life and the press and opposition party is silent as it does so.
Reposted by Left Anchor
I continue to point at my sign
The people who have praised Trump the most: Blinken, McGurk, Gottheimer, Goldman, Fetterman, Moskowitz, Jake Sullivan.
The people who haven't: Tlaib, AOC, Bernie, Jayapal, Pressley, Mamdani, etc.
The people who haven't: Tlaib, AOC, Bernie, Jayapal, Pressley, Mamdani, etc.
November 7, 2025 at 9:21 PM
I continue to point at my sign
Reposted by Left Anchor
I feel like people on Bluesky who have convinced themselves that the institutional Left in the United States is pro Trump and falling over backwards to credit Trump should have to reckon with the fact that the only Palestinian in Congress, and a DSA member, says (rightly) that the ceasefire is fake.
November 7, 2025 at 9:20 PM
I feel like people on Bluesky who have convinced themselves that the institutional Left in the United States is pro Trump and falling over backwards to credit Trump should have to reckon with the fact that the only Palestinian in Congress, and a DSA member, says (rightly) that the ceasefire is fake.
Reposted by Left Anchor
all of this is also true for sexism. you tell me you think women are biologically less smart and i’ll suspect that i could probably convince you to drink your own piss
November 7, 2025 at 9:01 PM
all of this is also true for sexism. you tell me you think women are biologically less smart and i’ll suspect that i could probably convince you to drink your own piss
Reposted by Left Anchor
Harry Truman: If it benefits all the people, they call it socialism.
November 7, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Harry Truman: If it benefits all the people, they call it socialism.
Reposted by Left Anchor
this is why ending the filibuster is good
“if you elect Republicans they will actually pass and implement Republican legislation” is a sentence that should be banal but everyone smart understands is an extinction-level scenario for the party as it currently exists
November 7, 2025 at 8:57 PM
this is why ending the filibuster is good