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Paul Krugman @paulkrugman
, 5 tweets, 2 min read Read on Twitter
This is an important point, but actually broader and deeper than the fact that most Americans will "look" white for a long time to come 1/ vox.com/policy-and-pol…
The fact is that who is considered "other" evolves over time, usually in American history toward more inclusiveness. Italian immigrants were literally considered subhuman, as you can see from this 1891 editorial in ... the New York Times 2/ pri.org/stories/2015-1…
Now, some descendants of those same immigrants are among those taking violently anti-immigrant positions in the name of national purity. 3/
On the other hand, some groups are always at risk of being "otherized" no matter how much they look. As the old line goes, if you're Jewish and happen to forget it, someone WILL remind you; the same goes for Asian-Americans 4/
The point is that race is a social and political construct. Will America still be America a generation from now? Politics, not immigration and birth rates, will determine the answer 5/
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A thread on foolish consistency and little minds: one thing I often encounter in my role as a public intellectual is someone pointing out that I once said something different from what I'm saying now. Why, yes: I do change my views when I get new information 1/
This is what you're supposed to do! Recently Larry Katz and Alan Krueger, who put out a widely cited study on the gig economy, discovered that new evidence makes the growth of that economy look much smaller. And they said so 2/ nber.org/papers/w25425
This is to their credit. If you never change your mind in the face of new arguments and evidence, you're probably a propagandist, not a real economist. Treating such shifts as gotcha moments says more about the critic than the researcher 3/
Read 7 tweets
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I'm trying not to do straight political punditry on the shutdown, because I don't know anything that any observant reader doesn't. But here's what strikes me: the thing with the wall isn't just cynical, it appears to be politically obtuse 1/
Obviously the wall serves no policy purpose, it's just an attempt to rile white people up over the imaginary threat from brown people. But here's the thing: Republicans have been trying that trick repeatedly, and it keeps not working 2/
It didn't work in the 2017 VA governor's race, which the GOP tried to make all about MS-13. A lot of pundits assumed this would work; they lost by 10 points 3/
Read 8 tweets
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Good piece from Bloomberg pointing out that Sweden actually has a top marginal rate of almost 70% -- and grass is hardly growing in the streets 1/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
I'd also point out that while the US federal top rate is only 37 -- it was 39.6 before the TCJA -- there are also state and local taxes. If you're a high earner in New York City, you pay almost 9% state and almost 4% city tax at the margin 2/
Plus sales taxes -- 4.5% state and 4% city -- also reduce the purchasing power of a marginal dollar earned. Put all of this together and high earned-income individuals (as opposed to capital incomes) pay a marginal rate of 55-60% 3/
Read 6 tweets

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vox.com/policy-and-pol… I don’t think conservative leaders are confused about how marginal tax rates work. They’re just lying. Still, your Fox News watching relatives are probably confused, so give them this explainer.
A simple way to explain it to your Fox grandpa: Say the 70% tax rate kicks in at one million dollars, and it’s 30% before that. You make one million and one dollar. Only the one dollar is taxed at 70%. The rest is taxed at 30%.
To be clear, Fox News grandpa will probably kick and scream and declare you’re lying when you tell the truth. But a small fraction of people really are confused. And the rest are going to have a harder time gulping down lies if you keep pressing, politely but firmly, the truth.
Read 3 tweets
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Yup. And *believing* the lie, without evidence, even with contrary evidence right before your eyes, is a strong act of in-group solidarity. It feels good (to the authoritarian follower, that is). All fun & games when the lies are trivial like this, but they don't stay that way.
Sorry all, I don't mean to dismiss a journalist being locked out of the WH as "trivial." I'm just trying to frame this contretemps against what might happen when they start lying about, oh, North Korean military exercises.
As Voltaire said, “Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.” All these little absurdities Trump is asking his followers to believe are preparation for bigger things to come. vox.com/policy-and-pol…
Read 3 tweets
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"White people suck" is synecdoche.
I was gonna do a whole thing about in-group language and anti-racist venting, but those five words are pretty much the whole thing. So I'm gonna go tidy my living room.
And hey look, @zackbeauchamp wrote the longer version, so I don't have to. vox.com/policy-and-pol…
Read 16 tweets
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vox.com/policy-and-pol… I’ve been offline, so I hope people are pointing out that this means Donald Trump’s Russian collusion is now a verified fact.
Whether it rises to the level of illegal criminal conspiracy remains an open question. But we know three things for a fact: 1) Trump knew Russia was trying to hack Democrats. 2) He issued orders to go after Clinton directly. 3) They obeyed. That is is collusion, period.
But honestly, the fact that he ever said in the first place is something people should take very seriously. The fact that they obeyed indisputably makes it collusion. But the fact that he said it meant it was always attempted collusion.
Read 5 tweets
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1/ James Clapper says in his new book, "Of course the Russian efforts affected the outcome. Surprising even themselves, they swung the election to a Trump win. To conclude otherwise stretches logic, common sense, and credulity to the breaking point." thedailybeast.com/james-clapper-…
2/ Intelligence had info nearly two years ago but McConnell refused to join Obama in speaking out about it. So Obama didn't. Biden: "Would things have gotten better, or would it further look like we were trying to de-legitimize the electoral process?" npr.org/sections/thetw…
3/ Despite Clapper's authoritative and informed opinion, some feel that nobody cares about Russian meddling. This is of course not true as opinion polls say most Americans do care. Six out of ten Americans say as much. vox.com/policy-and-pol…
Read 17 tweets
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Actually, you can still own a machine gun in the U.S. It's highly regulated, but very possible. There are many of them out there. --> thefederalist.com/2017/10/02/act…
--> vox.com/policy-and-pol…
2/ It's irrational to think that we can eliminate guns, or certain types, in the U.S. You'd have a hard time seizing 300 million of them. I'm pretty sure people won't cooperate. No one's going there. And of course you'd have to amend the Constitution, 2/3rd in both Houses & 3/4
3/ of the States would have to ratify, good luck with that.

We do have a culture of violence in the U.S. & we desperately need to address that. Of 11- 12 thousand gun deaths/yr, 9-10 thousand of them happen in the inner-cities, Black on Black crime. Gang turf wars & collateral
Read 35 tweets

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