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Matt Stoller @matthewstoller
, 4 tweets, 1 min read Read on Twitter
I wasn't disappointed in Obama, I was disappointed in the tens of millions of Democrats who decided that he was the greatest thing ever even as he presided over the destruction of the middle class.
Obama lied about really important things, like foreclosures and health costs. This notion that he was decent man dealing w/an impossible situation is as silly as the idea that Trump is a self-made billionaire. Obama shaped policy around aristocratic goals.
Grievance politics works on everyone. My own cohort is upper class white liberals, and upper class white liberals went nuts for Obama in a weird irrational manner. The rage from liberals who pointed out he lied about, say, retroactive immunity for telecoms in 2008, was high.
The Kavanaugh nomination is an outrage, but I'm trying to explain why white working class men in particular are willing to overlook seriously seriously bad stuff. It's grievance politics and it's not unique to working class white men.
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1. Ok, a quick thread on what I think was a very significant ideological fight that happened last week. The dispute was over something known as #PayGo and while it appeared to concern boring government budgeting questions, it is actually about the nature of money and democracy.
2. Money is a very weird thing. It is at heart a commodity that a group agrees is a medium of exchange. What gives money value is both a collective belief it does, and an enforcement trigger, ie taxing authority. Dollars have value bc the U.S. gov't collects taxes in dollars.
3. The value of money is essentially the amount of money in circulation versus how much stuff the economy produces. If you have a bigger economy you need more money to match that increased trade. Money is permission to use resources, the more resources the more money you need.
Read 23 tweets
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It's remarkable how easily we've gotten used to a very strange political dynamic. Donald Trump is President. We've had change elections in 2006, 2008, 2010, 2014, 2016, and 2018. We have powerful plutocrats. This is extremely unusual historically. Also Donald Trump is President.
Despite the stories we're sold, plutocrats in America are an unusual phenomenon. The basis of American political economy thinking has pretty much always been ensuring each citizen had a little bit of property so he can be independent, with the definition of citizen in contention.
The notion that laissez-faire capitalism was a basis of 19th century American economy is a fictional history peddled by a series of German-influenced thinkers. Questions of commercial rights, regulation, and resources were deeply contested.
Read 23 tweets
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It's probably be stupid/bad for Trump to do this, but the anguished screams about the norm fairy are worse. Elected leaders should control government policy.
And yes, Trump has the authority to do this. Fed board members have been breaking a very simple law forever.
I'm not a 'low interest rates are the best' type bc I think the in a deregulated financial world we actually deliver high rates to the poor while low rates are used for M&A. But if you're going to say Janet Yellen was The Best Chair Ever you should cheer for Trump firing Powell.
Read 5 tweets

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As an early documenter of Manafort’s lobbying & money laundering schemes, I’m now working on a pre-election report on the Mueller probe: What’s in store for Trump, Pence, Kushner and others in the inner circle? How will the probe end? Help support this: gofundme.com/volunteerjourn…
1. (THREAD) Special Counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election is zeroing in on a series of conference calls longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone hosted in 2016 where he predicted Wikileaks "will roil this race".wsj.com/articles/muell…
2. For months, Stone has been predicting his indictment by Mueller. “It is not inconceivable now that Mr. Mueller may seek to conjure up some extraneous crime pertaining to my business, or maybe not even pertaining to the 2016 election.”

Let's examine what those crimes may be:
Read 41 tweets
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Okay, I'm going to do a thread going over & critiquing Ryan Faulk's (The Alternative Hypothesis) & Sean Last's recent videos.
Starting with Ryan's

Ryan starts out with saying that whites aren't politically all that exceptional. He says this because people in Europe don't support freedom of speech as much as people in America. Yes, his argument really is this stupid.
Read 120 tweets
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1. Well, @matt_latimer, I can tell you I'm sick and tired of the statement that #Democrats don't stand for anything but being anti-Trump. As if we just poofed into existence during the 2016 election. As if it's just the man and not the policies we oppose. politico.com/magazine/story…
2. Why are we against policies that favor the wealthy and disenfranchise the poor? Why are we against immigration bans, walls, taking away healthcare, gutting safety-nets, civil and environmental protections? We oppose these policies because they are against what we stand for.
3. As Democrats we strive for economic parity, closing the wealth gap, providing equal opportunities for education and work. We believe in protecting the rights of all citizens and fighting to end injustice. We do, indeed, have a message and policies to support it.
Read 9 tweets
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Democrats are simply asking for action on the broad set of bipartisan priorities before the Congress:/1 #ABetterDeal #DemPartyPlatform #Democrats #DemForce #DemPriorities
Keep government open: While Republicans control the House and the Senate, and President Trump said earlier this year that ‘our country needs a good shutdown,’ Democrats want to keep government open./2
#ABetterDeal #DemPriorities #Democrats
Raise the caps: Democrats want a strong national defense. We also need an equal increase in our domestic budget, which includes critical national security functions and commitments to hard working families. #ABetterDeal #DemPriorities #DemsWork4USA
Read 12 tweets

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