Social Scientist (Mostly) in Exile

Yeah.

That is definitely a way in which the story could go.

bsky.app/profile/cnbc...

Imagine being so wedded to a certain style of horse-race political analysis that you "nothingburger" away the very likely possibility that the current President of the United States *raped children* and is using the vast and powerful apparatus of the government he controls to cover it up.

<James Kirk>: "Excuse me, but why does God need a tariff exemption?"

bsky.app/profile/atru...

The road to authoritarianism is littered with people telling you you’re overreacting.

The geostrategic significance of occupying the Crimean Peninsula, an obsession Putin has inherited from the Czars, is summarized by Trump in the same terms he applied to building a resort in Gaza

Based on their dull, pained expressions, even Bondi & Hegseth are embarrassed

bsky.app/profile/atru...

Okay, I'm not very good at capturing the Trump vibe - he would never use the word "albeit," but aside from that . . .

At this point, he might as well just say, "Hello America, I am here to provide my daily dose of inflammatory bullshit to distract you from the fact that I am, albeit slowly and wastefully, conducting a fascist coup. Thank you for your lack of attention to this matter."

bsky.app/profile/atru...

Jeanine Pirro (i) is now the lead federal prosecutor for Washington, DC and (ii) has just made one of the most compelling arguments in favor of the Second Amendment that I have ever heard.

We live in days full of wonder.

bsky.app/profile/atru...

Trump may be too senile and stupid to think in these kind of strategic terms, but his fascist retinue contains people who very much do think like this.

Using the military or FBI on the streets of DC is not about policing, it is about planning a coup.

Hi, quick political science lesson.

This all looks like a ridiculous, goofy stunt, but remember that the January 6 coup failed because Trump did not have loyal military/security officers to seize the capitol and coerce Congress.

Militarizing DC police corrects that error.

bsky.app/profile/asha...

This is 100% consistent with a large voting bloc despising Dems for not more effectively and clearly opposing fascism; difficult to explain these responses in any other way.

It makes me quite happy to see and I hope that Democratic candidates recognize this anger.

bsky.app/profile/egoj...

I guess we'll get a natural experiment testing the various comparative law/comparative politics theories that investment and hence economic development is hampered by personalistic, arbitrary rules and a lack of a predictable regulatory system constrained from arbitrary or extractive behavior.

It is nothing like socialism. It is an arbitrary, corrupt tax imposed, against every Constitutional principle, at the personal whim of the President (and I want evidence that the money is not somehow benefitting Trump directly rather than the US Treasury).

It is extortion

bsky.app/profile/ianb...

When modern social scientists describe government as a "stationary bandit" or "formalized protection racket," we generally don't mean it quite that literally.

It's supposed to be a thought-provoking theoretical/historical comparison to stimulate undergraduate conversations

bsky.app/profile/fina...

If you are honest with yourself, you can no longer pretend that it is not true. You can only decide what to do about it.

People of the US, your government is now - openly disregarding the law and the Constitution - a protection racket run for the personal benefit of one man.

Even if that particular man weren't a demented, racist, gameshow host and child-rapist, this would be a travesty.

bsky.app/profile/fina...

Political scientists are good at spotting this sort of thing, but technically a PhD in the social sciences isn't required.

bsky.app/profile/nich...

Exclusive | Billions Flow to New Hedge Funds Focused on AI-Related Bets A 23-year-old former OpenAI researcher quickly amassed more than $1.5 billion for a firm he called a “brain trust on AI.”

The Headline Read "He made $70,000 after reading 'Beating the Stock Market.'" No doubt whoever it was did. He might have made it without reading the volume or without being able to read. For now [...] the market sailed off into the wild blue yonder.

-J.K. Galbraith

www.wsj.com/finance/inve...

So, if this trend continues, I will have to tell my Finance capitalism students in the spring that financial fraud is basically not prosecuted so long as the perpetrator gives the President a cut?

That's not going to be a fun lecture to follow up the Pecora hearings.

bsky.app/profile/kenv...

Many people do not appreciate what on might call the "coercively transactional" nature of feudalism.

It is literally a protection racket, but a highly ritualized one.

bsky.app/profile/carl...

"This morning I had another talk with the Russian President, Herr Putin, and here is a paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine . . ."

bsky.app/profile/maks...

RFK Jr.'s all-out war against public health opens an unexpected new front against Linnaean taxonomy.

Initial reports suggest that Linnaean taxonomy was taken completely by surprise and has started a major strategic withdrawal.

To be fair, it got the higher truths that Ike was bald, Reagan and G. H. W. Bush blur together into a mutant nightmare in our collective memory, and Bill Clinton may in fact have been an inflatable sex toy, so I'm willing to give it partial credit.

bsky.app/profile/bobk...

If you somehow lose track of truth, logic, & reality and find yourself in danger of believing the feverish lie that America is being "invaded" by immigrants and refugees, stop and listen carefully to George Takei.

He is reminding you what good and evil mean. Pay attention

bsky.app/profile/geor...

US and Russia Plan Truce Deal to Cement Putin’s Gains in Ukraine Washington and Moscow are aiming to reach a deal to halt the war in Ukraine that would lock in Russia’s occupation of territory seized during its military invasion, according to people familiar with t...

Trump is on Putin's side and wants his genocidal war to end in victory. At home & abroad, Trump is an enemy of freedom.

Europe must resist and not allow Putin and Trump to win at a corrupt negotiating table what Russia's armies could not gain on the battlefield.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Induced Dark Age.

Do not vote for the political party in favor of ignorance and death.

bsky.app/profile/davi...

Made progress on his research, this one has not.

bsky.app/profile/atru...

Quick reminder from comparative politics, you purge the military and the security services when you (i) intend to use them to crush internal dissent or (ii) fear that 'disloyal' elements could use those institutions against you.

Either of those things is extremely bad.

bsky.app/profile/reut...

If you don't value dignity in the slightest, or, I guess, if you have a weird and very specific kind of degradation kink, the "There Is No Such Thing As Bad Publicity" stage of finance capitalism is going pretty well.

bsky.app/profile/usat...

Other times, of course, I just want everyone involved to be lined up and machine gunned when the revolution comes.

It kind of depends on the day.