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Matt Stoller @matthewstoller
, 7 tweets, 2 min read Read on Twitter
Discussing factional disputes within the Democratic party is useless, since no one will openly admit Obama's Presidency was a catastrophe.
Oh cool, 1 million people want to hear a passive aggressive conversation about how Obamacare sucks, but without saying that.
Centrists and liberals both use Obama as a grab-bag of whatever they like. 'Obama won because [my preference]' or 'Obama's mistake was because he didn't do [my preference].' Sorry, but being honest means accepting some shitty truths.
Obamacare was a disaster, with higher prices and less health care delivered. healthcostinstitute.org/report/2016-he…
Dodd-Frank was a failure, with Equifax and Wells Fargo routinely committing fraud with no real penalty.
Obama granted amnesty, not to immigrants who were deported at rates higher than they are now being deported under Trump, but to Wall Street executives.
We live in a more unequal, more chaotic, and more dangerous world now because of Obama, and because 95% of Democrats loved and supported him. The party is weak and ruined because that's what the Democratic base wants.
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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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Expect new/expanded smears against Bob, Barack, Bill, Hillary, Cap, Chris Wray, and/or several CNN and WaPo reporters, as well as, phony abuse allegations against a well-known #Democratic leader in the next week. Also, more lies about Comey, Rod, MC, MI6, and myself the next week
They’re stepping up their #psyop / distraction game big time. A person went “on-the-record” the other day lying about a critical event they supposedly “witnessed” within the last year or two related to one or two of the people I mentioned above - all lies, psyops, and smears.
Don’t be distracted. I don’t know exactly who the person went “on-the-record” about but it’s a yuge sham. Paid for by Mnuchin, Hannity, the Kochs, and the Kushners. You can quote me on this when it happens, too;-) - J
Read 4 tweets
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People are allowed to defend themselves. It has been a hot button issue for me for decades now that I'm supposed to be the better person and be above it all and let people sit there and make passive aggressive snotty comments about me and I'm the bad person if I respond.
No. When people attack me, in any manner, physical or reputational, I have an absolute right to defend myself. It is not a sign of guilt for me to punch back even harder when someone takes a swing at me. It's my utter right to do so.
This notion that it is somehow beyond the pale for anyone to reply with utter indignation to attacks, particularly those that the person knows to be baseless, is disgusting and speaks ill of the character of those taking that position.
Read 5 tweets
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Defining “Socialist” isn’t hard. You just have to read their work & listen to their leaders

And what you’ll find is frightening

Worse yet, the Dem Socialists of America (DSA) actually has a good shot of gaining power if we don’t wake up & fight back

Let’s read their plan: 1/17
.@DemSocialists want to abolish capitalism and transfer ownership of “essential” industries / related businesses to the govt or worker committees.

Why?

“Wealth is a social creation and should be controlled by society as a whole.”

(bit.ly/2vfQ7E5)
DSA’ers are squishy when defining which industries they’d nationalize. But the list touches every possible business, from food to electronics

Workers would then vote on which role is best for them, similar to the disastrous experiment at Zappos in 2016. (bit.ly/2DKlGNd)
Read 17 tweets
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One thing I dislike about the reaction to my "Laziness" essay is that people want to believe that all barriers can be overcome, and that simply empathizing with the person struggling will eventually make them *not* struggle so much...and that's not the full story.
And it's the fault of my writing that people are focusing on this aspect of the phenomenon. I talked a big game about how acknowledging barriers can help us get over them, or find workarounds for them. It's true. But also...sometimes things don't get better.
I don't want teachers, family members, friends, etc to empathize with a person's struggle *because that will fix the struggle magically*. I want them to empathize no matter what, even if the person never gets "better", and I want us all to love people who are "unproductive".
Read 12 tweets
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1. My first best friend, when I was 6, was a boy named Steven Wu. Steven's Mom was an acupuncturist, and one day after we dropped Steven off, my Dad told me acupuncture was against the law. My first experience of perceiving crime as glamourous.
2. When I was 11 years old, my father bought a CB radio. My CB handle was "Timber Wolf".
Read 153 tweets
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Some thoughts on the debate between Coates and Cornel West, as someone who had the privilege to study with the latter.
I think a lot of folks misunderstand Dr. West’s position because they don’t put themselves in his way of seeing the world. Because for years Dr. West has been very consistent with his critiques of #Obama, #neoliberalism, and #internationalism
West sees the world through an #internationalist matrix of power. That means that, for him, understanding #WhiteSupremacy, for example, isn’t just about understanding individual #racist encounters in the US but understanding *policies* that disenfranchise non-white folk.
Read 17 tweets

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