Distinguished Professor, officially. Writes books (see link). Florida man.🌴 Proud to serve the people of California. My views are but mine own.
5 added to My Authors
May 11 • 7 tweets • 1 min read
People in my mentions quoting Jed Bartlet (aka Aaron Sorkin) on how you shouldn't shake martinis … why
unless you're Winston Churchill, whose alleged recipe was "pour gin, glance respectfully at vermouth, consume," I don't think you've quite got it
May 11 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
“Yearbooks on hold over photos of students protesting Florida law limiting LGBTQ classroom instruction” nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-ne…
I’m not a lawyer, ofc, but I’d think that protesting a law is protected speech, and the yearbook reporting on it is also protected speech?
Dec 5, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I suspect GET BACK is slightly a Rorschach test; that is, that what you get from it says as much about you as it does about the text itself
It reminds me of that Lionel Trilling remark about boring books
Nov 29, 2021 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
A means of communication from a more civilized age.
This is a real, and quite serious, story; to relieve unemployment in the Virgin Islands, Harold Ickes set up a US-owned corporation (with three shares of stock: one held by him, one by the Assistant Secretary of the Interior, and one held by the VI governor) …
Oct 27, 2021 • 20 tweets • 3 min read
Acknowledging all the caveats about how this is a game and not serious historical analysis, let’s think about what Roosevelt did do, and whether it applies …
In 1932, Roosevelt campaigned on a major public works program, farm relief, better labor laws, securities regulation, more public power, reforestation, lower tariffs, old-age pensions, unemployment insurance, coordination of industry…much of we now think of as the New Deal.
This is George Baer, depicted during the 1902 anthracite strike.
Oct 1, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
The reason we, and everyone else, went off the gold standard is that it was a giant failure. nytimes.com/2015/11/13/opi…
Sep 18, 2021 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
I reviewed Woodward & Costa's PERIL. I think its stuff on Biden is as interesting, if less juicy, than its stuff on Trump.
"'Who thinks democracy is a given?” [Biden] asked … 'If you do, think again.'"
washingtonpost.com/outlook/how-tr…
A lot of the Trump stuff leaked before publication because it tells us yet more about January 6 and the plan to derail certification. But the Biden stuff, which is the stuff of ordinary politics, is consequential too.
Sep 15, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Saying Elder got 47% is misleading; he got 47% of people who answered the second question (who should replace). Remember, Newsom asked that you vote “no-and-go”—no on the recall and nothing on the second question. Looks like about 45% of the total voters did that. Which means…
About 4m voters didn’t vote on the second question. Elder got 2.4m votes. So he lost overwhelmingly to the nonvotes. And he didn’t get 47%, he got 47% of 55%, or about 26%.
Aug 29, 2021 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
"Gov. Ron DeSantis has crisscrossed the state…promoting a treatment for people who already have COVID-19. But the last time he held an event specifically to encourage getting vaccinated was four months ago. Instead, he’s downplayed the vaccines…"
"Kelly “told the president that he was wrong, but Trump was undeterred”, emphasizing German economic recovery under Hitler during the 1930s.
“Kelly pushed back again…and argued that the German people would have been better off poor than subjected to the Nazi genocide.”"
May 8, 2021 • 20 tweets • 25 min read
What history should you read about the New Deal to inform the present moment?
With the caveat that I *will* forget something, so forgive me now: I would skew toward more recent work, reflecting as it does the most thorough reading and scholarship …
Several people have passed this to me, asking some version of “isn’t this stupid?” I don’t know if it is; it’s obviously ignorant, though. tabletmag.com/sections/news/…
First of all, did FDR do “cancellable” things? Sure.
The ur text on this is Nancy Weiss, FAREWELL TO THE PARTY OF LINCOLN. Some Black voters were Roosevelt-curious in 1932 and there was a detectable shift toward the Democrats that year. But other traditionally Republican constituencies shifted more.
Jan 26, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
"Trying to appease the right is bad policy and worse politics. The cult of bipartisanship will destroy Biden's presidency if it can't be overcome.” theweek.com/articles/96298…
Nobody ever looked at a WPA paycheck and said “mmm, but it’d spend better if it was more bipartisan"
Jan 24, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
I’ve been seeing all you haters during this game, and
And before you say anything about the officiating, on that last call I agree with Mike Pereira