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Matthew Chapman Profile picture
@fawfulfan
Sep 15, 2020 • 3 tweets • 1 min read • Read on X
All this panic from conservative pundits on how a unified Dem govt would nuke the filibuster, pack the courts, admit new states, etc, totally overlooks the fact that the GOP could prevent all this by, y'know, respecting the popular will and compromising on legislation.
The only reason any Dems are talking about doing any of these things is because the GOP has become a radical minoritarian insurgency that has spent years consistently grinding the system to a halt to impose their will against democracy, and there's no expectation they'll stop.
I mean, people like Ted Cruz were straight-up saying in 2016, if Clinton won, they'd reject her legitimacy, keeping Scalia's seat vacant 4 years, even immediately starting impeachment!

If the GOP doesn't want democratic rules rewritten, they could start by ... not doing that?

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More from @fawfulfan

Matthew Chapman Profile picture
Aug 26
So I've wondered for a while too how Starbucks become such a huge target of online Gaza boycotters, since they aren't on the BDS list and don't even operate any locations in Israel.

I've looked into it and it turns out there are two extremely silly reasons for this.
First of all, it turns out that anti-Israel Starbucks boycotts didn't start with the Israel/Hamas war. In fact, it goes back WAY further than I ever imagined.

This started all the way back in 2006.
Specifically, in 2006, an antisemitic satirist named Andrew Winkler wrote a parody "Letter to Customers" from Starbucks' then-CEO Howard Schultz, who is Jewish, to thank them for all the profits the company will use to supply the IDF with weapons. spiked-online.com/2009/01/14/isr…
Read 8 tweets
Matthew Chapman Profile picture
Aug 13
You know what? I'm going to set aside all my liberal arguments (we need affordable housing, segregation is bad) and libertarian arguments (zoning infringes on property rights) for why zoning reform is good, and I'm going to make a *conservative* argument for it.

Image
Image
Car-dependent suburbs as they exist today were built at least partly for a good, well-intentioned reason, which is that many people who need big city jobs nonetheless want to live in a small, closely-knit community that shares values and takes care of each other.
But, car-dependent suburbs also very often fail in this purpose, because the zoning that dictated how they were laid out does not allow for organic common spaces and places of public gathering.

They lack a "Main Street" that was common in small town life for most of our history.
Read 11 tweets
Matthew Chapman Profile picture
Jul 28
There are a lot of reasons CAHSR has been so delayed and over budget, and a lot of them have been bad things — NIMBY lawsuits, grifting by contractors, the desire by politicians to use the project as a jobs program.

But I'd like to discuss one GOOD reason it's taken so long. Image
And that reason is: California officials conceived of this project, from the start, as a core trunk service that will connect and modernize all the currently disjointed and outdated rail systems in Northern and Southern California.
IOW, it's not just about building a line from point A to B, it's about making the whole of CA navigable by rail. It's about creating a system where you can hop a commuter train in the Bay Area, catch a bullet train to SoCal, then take another commuter train to your final stop.
Read 9 tweets
Matthew Chapman Profile picture
Jul 4
All right. Here is my long, nuanced take on the last week of Biden panic and media chaos.

I'm probably going to make a lot of people on every side mad with at least part of what I have to say here.
1) Biden is genuinely older than he was, does not have the physical stamina he used to, and it is apparent in his speeches.

2) It is also apparent in his speeches he is cognitively fine. He answers questions sharply and with policy nuance. He just sounds tired doing it.
3) Biden is inherently distrustful of elite journalists and don't give them the access they believe they deserve.

4) This has caused a reporter vendetta that is fueling the current media cycle.
Read 11 tweets
Matthew Chapman Profile picture
May 16
With Detroit seeing a population and economic rebound, it's worth exploring what exactly caused the city to fall so hard — because there are REALLY important lessons for a lot of other U.S. cities, some of which are making similar mistakes to Detroit and not realizing it.
So why did Detroit go bankrupt?

The standard answer that politicians and economists will give you is "the auto industry changed, there weren't as many jobs as there used to be, so the population declined."

This is true, but it's really not the whole story.
The follow-up question here, that rarely gets asked, is, WHY does a population crash mean the city goes bankrupt? There are fewer taxpayers, sure, but there's also fewer people using public services, so shouldn't it all kind of even out?
Read 16 tweets
Matthew Chapman Profile picture
May 9
Biden gave Netanyahu months — literally months — to explain what his plan was for keeping the civilians he forcibly evacuated to Rafah safe if they bomb that area.

He was very clear they needed to have that plan or we'd cut him off.

Netanyahu ignored him. Totally blew him off.
The U.S. has *already* at this point bent several of its own laws that require countries receiving our weapons sales to allow a certain level of humanitarian aid in, to keep Israel supplied for a war that it absolutely has the money and manufacturing to prosecute 100% on its own.
Netanyahu has no one to blame but himself for Biden losing his patience and drawing a line on invading Rafah.

Yes, Hamas has been a bad faith actor. Yes, they started the war. That doesn't mean Israel gets a pass to flatten civilians in the city ISRAEL TOLD THEM TO GO TO.
Read 5 tweets

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