Patrick Loftus

Every governor should be doing this.

In 2016 this guy went to a law office with the goal of killing his wife’s lawyer. He hacked a woman to death with a machete and bludgeoned two other people to death (including a man he falsely thought was that lawyer), then set fire to the building to cover his tracks.

Anyway, Trump just freed him.

As of today the federal minimum wage has now been $7.25 for 16 years.

New from our co-founder @nicolefroio.bsky.social: nonprofit newsrooms struggle to cover Israel-Palestine without losing funding.

more evidence for “a bunch of AI cultists dismantled large parts of the federal government because they believed that their LLMs were intelligent and could do the work better” thesis

Trump today: "I'm surprised he [Jerome Powell] was appointed. I'm surprised frankly that Biden put him in."

Trump in November 2017: "It is my pleasure and my honour to announce my nomination of Jerome Powell to be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve."

Thanks for the clarity. Interesting! Didn't realize states can't go bankrupt. I supposed they can default / get bad credit ratings, but then they can probably still issue low-interest loans and still get buyers (maybe Fed, maybe private investors), right? State tax revenue is always there...

Love the idea! Some Qs, as someone still learning all this:
1) How can we be certain the Fed will purchase these bonds?
2) Blue states can only tax the rich (b/c tax the poor=bad/stupid) or ditch balanced budgets to do this, right?
3) Using fixed or variable interest bonds? Would fixed be better?

Some patriotic reflections on Independence Day Look at me. I’m the originalist, now.

hey, you ever re-read the Declaration of Independence? some fascinating stuff in there www.theverge.com/policy/69730...

Stop Saying “Taxpayer Money” It’s called public money. And the way we talk about public money shapes politics, federal policy and working-class lives.

demand an economy that serves the working class instead of the oligarchs who have been increasingly benefitting from the "the deficit myth" for decades.
substack.com/home/post/p-...

But as this bill's passage shows, the national debt apparently doesn't matter anymore anyway. So it's time we stop talking about "taxpayer money", acknowledge our government can afford anything we can actually do, and...

Why? B/c if we had a fed gov't that pursued fiscal + regulatory policy to ensure dignified jobs for all, free universal public goods and lower costs of living, then workers would be less willing to accept the poor quality jobs & services offered by large corporations and rich people who own them.

Fascism is here because both parties have used "the national debt" as an excuse not to invest (or actively disinvest) in policies that serve the public interest. Why? Because underfunded public services benefit the rich & corporations (their donors and puppet masters).

We should all realize by now that federal budget deficits are not the problem. The national debt is not a "bill that future generations need to pay." The federal government has Constitutional authority to create unlimited $$ to pay its bills.

The real problem is fascism.

The debt, deportation, and death bill has passed. Congress further decimates care work to fund violence work.

Vital services eviscerated and ICE becomes the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency ever known. It hasn’t been sold this way, but it’s a massive public jobs program for fascists.

😕

With this vote, Congress makes ICE the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency in history, with more money per year at its disposal over the next four years than the budgets of the FBI, DEA, ATF, US Marshals, and Bureau of Prisons combined.

CEOs Start Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud: AI Will Wipe Out Jobs Ford chief predicts AI will replace “literally half of all white-collar workers.”

They’re literally advertising it.

American Airlines: "Move swiftly and pass the bill"

@americanair.bsky.social @americanairsupport.bsky.social wants the One Big Brutal Bill Act to pass quickly.
Their customer service line: 800-433-7300
#biguglybill

This can be an effective approach and the genocidaires know it. The White House is now in full attack mode against @franceskalbs.bsky.social and she needs our collective support more than ever.

AOC: "On this point of tax on tips, as one of the only people in this body who has lived off of tips, I want to tell you a little bit about the scam ... the cap on that is $25,000 while you're jacking up taxes on people who make less than $50,000 across the US ... while kicking them off the ACA."

This @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social video is absolutely INCREDIBLE. The numbers he cites, the strategy and results they produced — it’s the future. When have you heard *any* campaign talk about this, ever? (Video split in 2 to fit in Bluesky’s limits)

The poverty line is like $16K a year. You think someone making 17K a year can afford health care?

Also, half of all the Medicaid recipients in your state are kids. So..."fuck those kids," I guess?

It's even worse than it looks. Developing countries borrow in foreign currencies they don't control. The US, China, UK, etc. can print their own currency to service debt payments, but developing countries must sell nat'l assets to earn that foreign currency. It's neocolonial. We need a debt jubilee.

YouTube video by Zohran Mamdani for NYC Who Said Public Transit Can't Be Free?

This is a perfect example of selling the brownie, not the recipe.

If you want people to come to your cause, you need to be attractive. And, no, I'm not talking about Mamdani's flawless smile. (Though his dentist needs to start advertising that stat.)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RScO...

As an Iranian American, it feels like I need to help explain something:

A friend recently expressed confusion as to why those in the Iranian diaspora (liked myself), who hate the regime, would be opposed to the attacks on Iran.

I’ll try to explain my thoughts/feelings.

🧵

Israel is a rogue state - don’t let it drag us into World War III

Would love to see what you produce and hear your thoughts!

Probably the most interesting part of this thread is at the end where Piketty recommends an international reserve currency / clearing union (like Keynes tried to established at Bretton Woods) bsky.app/profile/thom...