Notices by Steve Randy Waldman (interfluidity@zirk.us)

war is always unsustainable the question is for whom it’s unsustainable first.

“China surely does not have a great record in respecting the rule of law, but it actually is probably a better bet at this point than what we have seen in Donald Trump’s first 100 days.” @DeanBaker13 https://cepr.net/publications/turning-america-into-russia/

the most insidious propaganda by mainstream media is how it cheerfully chatters the days away as though we are living through ordinary times rather than a desperate national emergency.

is there a more banality-of-evil phrase than "ICE quota"?

If Trump remains obstinately on this course, a US recession (at the very least) is certain. Whether the recession is global depends whether rest-of-world big economies can get over either their austerity fetish or their unwillingness to seriously tax the very rich. 1/

(Traditionally, it's deficit spending that's considered stimulus. But taxing the very wealthy affects overall demand almost not at all, while government spending still stimulates demand. Investment spending is a function of anticipated consumer demand much more than rich-person wealth.) /fin

miserable.

from Justice Jackson dissenting https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a931_2c83.pdf

ht @stevevladeck @proptermalone

the people who wanted "everything run like a business" also transformed how businesses were run, and it broke those too.

(they transformed businesses into the idiot share-price maximizers of pathetically stylized economic models, which is not how most businesses actually functioned before 1970!)

if a US visa or green card is a “privilege” whose revocation constitutes foreign-policy discretion rather than punishment and so is not subject to protection on first-amendment grounds, couldn’t an identical case be made with respect to passports for US citizens?

The war-plans thing is bad, but I think it's far less of a scandal than lawlessly decimating USAID, CFPB, NSF/NIH, etc.

It would have been a terrible tragedy if US servicemembers had been harmed due to their leaders' miserable opsec. But what those mfs have done to USAID alone will kill many more.

I’m a Jew, I don’t think @carolannie has said or done anything remotely racist or wrong, and I think @serge is being a real dick.

@GreenSkyOverMe there were more than two candidates on people’s ballots.

Donald Trump won more votes than any other candidate. But the other candidates together won more than 50% of the vote.

a majority of voters voted for someone other than Donald Trump.

Excellent, from #MattBruenig, on “Abundance”. https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2025/03/24/the-abundance-agenda/ ht @ryanlcooper

Donald Trump has no mandate at all. The majority of people who voted in the 2024 election voted against him.

He won a plurality of the popular vote. He achieved not even the barest majority, which itself would not constitute any kind of a mandate.

i really hate the conflation of globalism and neoliberalism. neoliberal globalism was a catastrophe. but other globalisms are possible, globalism per se is a mark of freedom and taking pleasure in the variety that springs from the humanity and dignity we share.

“The reason you should care about this is not that it could happen to you but that it is already happening to others. It is happening to people who, we claim, have rights just because we are human. It is happening to me, personally.” #MashaGessen https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/opinion/trump-trans-denationalizing.html

What people really hate about "unelected bureaucrats" is they turn into unaccountable tyrants before we find ourselves helpless and unfree.

Thank goodness the Trump administration is on the case, putting those bureaucrats in their place.

https://thetrek.co/a-german-thru-hiker-has-been-detained-deported-and-banned-from-the-us-without-a-hearing-heres-what-you-need-to-know/

ht @benroyce

@realcaseyrollins It's give Trump all the power, not just over ourselves, but over everybody. It's pure hierarchy, and ensuring ruthless means of enforcement.

@realcaseyrollins Bannon sometimes says idealistic things. No matter how elaborately those things are betrayed, he toes the line. Musk is a transhumanist, a threat to traditional judeochristian ideas of virtuous living, he says. OK. Where's the pushback?

There are lots of grand visions, but no constancy in pursuing anything but expanding and demonstrating power. A movement is what a movement does, destruction of institutions, manufacture of fear, consolidation of power.

ambitious sociopaths are drawn to MAGA. rule by unvarnished, unapologetic exercise of power is their highest ambition made real. there are plenty of ambitious sociopaths among democrats. you can see them. they feign disdain but they slip, pulled toward that bright light of ruthless control.