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Matthew Chapman
@fawfulfan
, 3 tweets, 1 min read Read on Twitter
For god's sake, people, we desperately need to agree to a common definition of "socialism".

It can't just be "anything that's more liberal than current U.S. economic policy." Otherwise, neither its detractors nor its supporters can even accurately convey what they stand for!
There is no cohesive economic agenda that both describes Nicolas Maduro and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. If we keep confidently talking as if there is, no one is going to know what the hell anyone's talking about. And the GOP is going to take advantage of that.
It does not do any of us good when "socialism", uttered in different contexts by people with various political bents, means either nationalized industry and food rationing, Medicare for All, or slightly raising taxes on the rich. It clearly doesn't mean ALL of these things.
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Matthew Chapman
@fawfulfan
THREAD:

I think as the Democratic Party discusses the future of governance, it needs to address two major problems: the filibuster, and malapportionment of the Senate.

Both are serious problems and both, I think, actually could be solved by a single, simple rule change.
1/ But first, a quick rundown of both of these problems.

The filibuster, the rule that any senator can shut down debate of a bill and 60 votes are needed to end debate, used to only be used in exceptional cases, but now it's used on every bill for partisan reasons.
2/ Right now, the filibuster is Democrats' best friend because it blocks Trump's agenda in a GOP Senate, but from 2009-2015 it basically hobbled a sizeable Democratic majority from doing anything. And we were right to be concerned.
Read 11 tweets
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Matthew Chapman
@fawfulfan
False. The FEC report you're referring to shows Roberts provided digital marketing and web design services to @AOC's campaign in an amount worth $1,750. She didn't pay him anything.

Either you're lying or you just have no idea how to read campaign finance reports.
Oh, and in case you noticed @AOC's committee also shows a "disbursement" of $1,750 to Roberts, that doesn't mean she paid him. The FEC automatically counts in-kind contribs as a disbursement because the "money" on the receipt has already been "spent" by providing the service.
Example: suppose I donate 10 bowling balls to @AOC. That would be a roughly $1,000 in-kind contribution. But it's also a disbursement, because I effectively gave her $1,000 and made her "spend" it on 10 bowling balls. So it'll appear on both sides of her ledger.
Read 3 tweets
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Matthew Chapman
@fawfulfan
So @HowardSchultz's logic is, "the system is broken because it can't tally votes for more than two people. Therefore I'm going to run as a third person and fix it."

That's like saying, "My house's wiring is dangerous, so I'm going to fix it by sticking a fork in this outlet."
What @HowardSchultz doesn't get is, it's not inherently bad there are only 2 parties. What's bad is that the parties overrepresent rich people who can afford to be in politics.

A self-funded billionaire buying his way into the race isn't the solution. It's the problem.
Further, @HowardSchultz only got into the race because of his distaste for the left-wing policies proposed by new pols like @AOC who, for once, were elected from the working class.

He sees himself as disrupting the status quo, but he's running against the only thing fighting it.
Read 3 tweets

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Doug Priest, PhD
@10MinuteHistory
Alright, let's try a thing.

1 like = 1 interesting thing about the Soviet Union BEFORE the Cold War

#twitterstorians
After winning the Civil War, the government instituted the New Economic Policy that reintroduced some capitalistic/market elements to the economy. This was very controversial, but a central part of the economy for much of the 1920s.
Soviet "nationality policy" was very concerned with how to treat non-Russian peoples in the 1920s and ended up creating the conditions for the creation of lots of non-Russian national identities/countries that had been much more loosely defined before the revolution.
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EllidaProject
@EllidaProject
1) Those who read my tweets with any frequency probably know already that I expect to see SHTF/WORL sometime in the near future. Today I thought I'd write to the "boomers" out there.

I have never thought of myself as a member of any particular "generation."
2) Analyzing and categorizing myself just isn't something I've ever been interested in doing - so I don't tend to jabber much about which labels fit me and which don't.

Nevertheless, I have noticed in recent weeks a lot of anti-boomer sentiment in the Twitterverse...
3) so I decided to write about it. Looking up the definition of "baby boom generation" I learned that I myself am, by most definitions, part of it! I'm at the tail end, but still in the group.

I don't think I have lived the boomer life that upsets many younger people...
Read 31 tweets
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Ben Conover
@yallidarityyall
While #STL is focused on the @BTstl proposal today, there are rumblings in Jeff City that clawbacks to the Sunshine Law provisions of @CleanMissouri may be rushed through today by the #MOLEG supermajority. If I hear anything more, will keep you updated.
I'll be watching the stream, will try to tweet out highlights. Fair warning: I'm very skeptical of this whole thing largely due to the 1% running the process. See @VirvusJ for more commentary.
We're up and running. Video rolling. Lots of criticism of bureaucracy and lack of economic development. Blaming government structure for the fragmentation of #STL
Read 57 tweets
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Ms George
@msgeorgekirrin
THREAD: I’ve learnt a huge amount in the last few months and want to thank everyone who has shared their knowledge and experience in the GC debate. I’ve summarised some of the things I’ve learnt and am interested to see where you all disagree so here goes...
1. There are only two sexes. While up to 1.7% of the population can be classed as intersex, 99% of the time those people are still unequivocally male or female. True hermaphrodites are incredibly rare.
People with intersex conditions are unhappy being used as evidence of “sex as a spectrum” or “a third sex” as it’s medically wrong and offensive. Listen to the tireless @mrkhtake2 among others.
Read 19 tweets
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Ian Danskin
@InnuendoStudios
Having finished The Authoritarians, it's time to start a new thread of #IanLivetweetsHisResearch. Today I am finally getting past the introduction of How Propaganda Works by Jason Stanley.
Having slogged through some proper academic writing in my day, Stanley's writing is blessedly accessible. But after Altemeyer's light tone and constant dad jokes, Stanley's reads as pretty dry.
So far the introduction is full of a lot of quotations about the nature of democracy, from Victor Klemperer to Elizabeth Anderson to Plato. OF COURSE Plato.
Read 409 tweets

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