This is sadly not a new thing. If we define terrorism as "threatened or actual violence by a non-state actor to achieve political ends", there is no close second to the KKK & their descendants when it comes to domestic terrorism. washingtonpost.com/investigations…
That definition by the way comes from University of Maryland who maintains a database of all domestic terror events that proves out that point. start.umd.edu/gtd/
One of the challenges crafting anti-domestic terrorism statutes is that to do so requires that we address our original sin and confront the too-close ties between government officials and racist vigilantes from reconstruction to today.
That's not to say that there is no room for forgiveness. But the fact that stories like the one at the start of this thread are presented as surprising recent "surges" means that we haven't yet really had that conversation. It's overdue. /fin

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More from @SeanCasten

5 Apr
Some Monday morning thoughts on infrastructure, free markets and the appropriate role for the federal government. Thread:
1/ Inspired partially by some of the chatter amongst the more libertarian ends of my twitter feed suggesting that if free markets won't build infrastructure, the government shouldn't either. That fundamentally misunderstands infrastructure and capital markets.
2/ For the purposes of this thread (and Biden's infrastructure plan) let's define infrastructure as capital intensive stuff that makes commodities that people need. Telephone, rail, internet, electricity, highways and high volume mfg. Among others.
Read 19 tweets
15 Mar
This story about the challenges climate change is creating for coastal SC is a great distillation of why it's so important for our financial regulators to start treating climate change as a systemic risk. Brief thread: nytimes.com/2021/03/14/cli…
1/ First, this quote says everything you need to know about what happens if we stay on the course we are on.
2/ So here's a community where parts of beaches are shrinking by 14' a year, trying to figure out whether they are willing to raise the property taxes necessary to elevate the main road. That sisyphyean question is question is at the heart of system climate financial risk
Read 14 tweets
2 Mar
Thanks for asking, friend! I'm happy to answer. First though, note that what we voted was simply to say that prisoners can vote. And as you know well, most prisoners are convicted of more trivial offenses.
1/ And as I'm sure you're well aware, our prison system massively over-incarcerates minorities, typically for low-level crimes that white men like me never get arrested for.
2/ Note this has nothing to do with whether or not people should do the time if they did the crime. It's simply saying that we cannot and should not use our prison system as a back-door to disenfranchisement.
Read 12 tweets
28 Feb
We need to end the damned filibuster. And we need to stop pretending that a 50/50 division in a body that was designed to over-represent land at the expense of people reflects a divided US electorate.
Fact: The Senate, by design only represents 98.7% of the American electorate (because it excludes DC and the territories, which are represented in the House)
For comparison, WY, VT, AK, ND and SD represent fewer Americans than live in DC and the territories. And they get 10 votes (10% of the total!)
Read 5 tweets
27 Feb
Early this morning, we passed the #AmericanRescuePlan.

It's critically needed and the Senate must act now to get these resources into our economy to help struggling families and businesses, accelerate vaccine roll-out and safely reopen our schools.

A few important things:
1/ The single biggest line item in the bill is for direct, $1400 checks to people earning $75,000 or less ($150,000 for couples). $1400 per earner and each of their dependents.
2/ (If you earn more than these levels the amount of the payment scales down to zero at $100K/$200K), to ensure this is targeted to the neediest.)
Read 21 tweets
26 Feb
OK, so this gets me a little verklempt. Herewith a true story about two of the most special moments in the 116th Congress - the first Congress for me and my friend @SpanbergerVA07. Sharing because it's a nice story and we need more nice stories. Thread:
1/ So one of the weirder things about this job is that all votes "feel" the same. Lots of debate, drama, press before & after (some) votes, but the process of pressing yay or nay is the same on a post office renaming as it is on a $5T appropriation.
2/ Intuitively, of course we know some are more meaningful. But the feedback is usually delayed. My first experience of anything different was the vote on the #EqualityAct in the 116th.
Read 16 tweets

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