#theamericanprospect — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #theamericanprospect, aggregated by home.social.
-
RE: https://mastodon.social/@RonSupportsYou/116994186360389825
I recently discovered #TheAmericanProspect magazine. "It is a progressive and liberal public policy magazine founded by Robert Kuttner, Robert Reich, and Paul Starr":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_American_Prospect #ReliableSources #media. -
RE: https://mastodon.social/@RonSupportsYou/116994186360389825
I recently discovered #TheAmericanProspect magazine. "It is a progressive and liberal public policy magazine founded by Robert Kuttner, Robert Reich, and Paul Starr":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_American_Prospect #ReliableSources #media. -
CW: US Politics
When Consumer Protection Stops, Scammers Run Amok - The American Prospect https://prospect.org/2026/03/31/scams-consumer-protection-cfpb-bilt-credit-cards/
#ConsumerProtection #Scams #USPol #FinTech #TheAmericanProspect
-
How to Stop ICE – The American Prospect
Federal immigration officers are seen near the scene where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE officer last week, January 13, 2026, in Minneapolis. Credit: John Locher / AP PhotoHow to Stop ICE
Today on TAP: With another government funding deadline looming, congressional Democrats can at least partly curtail Trump’s thugs.
by Harold Meyerson, January 13, 2026
ICE has frequently been labeled as America’s own Gestapo, but that’s not the only historical antecedent that we should invoke. It’s also, I would submit, a resurrection of the Klan, but this time with de jure, as opposed to de facto, state power.
In its second flourishing—roughly 1915 through 1929—the Klan expanded to Northern states and directed its violence and threats of violence against not just Blacks but also Catholics and Jews, all of whom they saw as threatening the white Protestant essence of the United States. They were the tip of the nativist spear, which in 1924 led Congress to restrict immigration to the overwhelmingly white Protestant nations of northwest Europe.
The ads that the Trump administration is running to bolster recruitment to ICE’s ranks are pitched to white nationalists. One borrows the lyrics of a white nationalist ballad, which promise that “We’ll have our home again” if only we can restore it to its pre-immigrant purity. One social media posting shows a classic car parked on a beach, under the words “America After 100 Million Deportations.” In this case, the mythic past that fascism always invokes is that of the Beach Boys circa 1964—white teens on white beaches.
Getting to 100 million, of course, means it’s not just immigrants but most of non-MAGA America that stands athwart our recapturing of white hegemony. By that standard, the killing of Renee Good was, if not exactly official policy, at least well within the administration’s meta-policy (i.e., conforming to Stephen Miller’s hatreds).
So how can we stop the violent maraudings of our 21st-century Klan? At the state level, some Democratic legislators have introduced legislation that would at least ban state police agencies from hiring ICE employees and former employees. At the congressional level, another federal spending authorization to keep the government open will come before Congress later this month; in theory, at least, the government will have to shutter most of its doors again on January 30. Could the Democrats refuse to pass it unless it defunded ICE?
Not in the House, of course, since the Republicans hold a small majority sufficient to prevail over any Democratic modifications. But it requires only 41 of the Senate’s 47 Democrats to keep a bill from clearing the Senate’s 60-vote cloture threshold.
Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.
Continue/Read Original Article Here: How to Stop ICE – The American Prospect
Tags: Curtail Funding, Democrats, How to Stop ICE, ICE, ICE Tactics, ICE Thugs, Stop Funding ICE, TAP, The American Prospect, U.S. Congress
#CurtailFunding #Democrats #HowToStopICE #ICE #ICETactics #ICEThugs #StopFundingICE #TAP #TheAmericanProspect #USCongress -
How to Stop ICE – The American Prospect
Federal immigration officers are seen near the scene where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE officer last week, January 13, 2026, in Minneapolis. Credit: John Locher / AP PhotoHow to Stop ICE
Today on TAP: With another government funding deadline looming, congressional Democrats can at least partly curtail Trump’s thugs.
by Harold Meyerson, January 13, 2026
ICE has frequently been labeled as America’s own Gestapo, but that’s not the only historical antecedent that we should invoke. It’s also, I would submit, a resurrection of the Klan, but this time with de jure, as opposed to de facto, state power.
In its second flourishing—roughly 1915 through 1929—the Klan expanded to Northern states and directed its violence and threats of violence against not just Blacks but also Catholics and Jews, all of whom they saw as threatening the white Protestant essence of the United States. They were the tip of the nativist spear, which in 1924 led Congress to restrict immigration to the overwhelmingly white Protestant nations of northwest Europe.
The ads that the Trump administration is running to bolster recruitment to ICE’s ranks are pitched to white nationalists. One borrows the lyrics of a white nationalist ballad, which promise that “We’ll have our home again” if only we can restore it to its pre-immigrant purity. One social media posting shows a classic car parked on a beach, under the words “America After 100 Million Deportations.” In this case, the mythic past that fascism always invokes is that of the Beach Boys circa 1964—white teens on white beaches.
Getting to 100 million, of course, means it’s not just immigrants but most of non-MAGA America that stands athwart our recapturing of white hegemony. By that standard, the killing of Renee Good was, if not exactly official policy, at least well within the administration’s meta-policy (i.e., conforming to Stephen Miller’s hatreds).
So how can we stop the violent maraudings of our 21st-century Klan? At the state level, some Democratic legislators have introduced legislation that would at least ban state police agencies from hiring ICE employees and former employees. At the congressional level, another federal spending authorization to keep the government open will come before Congress later this month; in theory, at least, the government will have to shutter most of its doors again on January 30. Could the Democrats refuse to pass it unless it defunded ICE?
Not in the House, of course, since the Republicans hold a small majority sufficient to prevail over any Democratic modifications. But it requires only 41 of the Senate’s 47 Democrats to keep a bill from clearing the Senate’s 60-vote cloture threshold.
Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.
Continue/Read Original Article Here: How to Stop ICE – The American Prospect
Tags: Curtail Funding, Democrats, How to Stop ICE, ICE, ICE Tactics, ICE Thugs, Stop Funding ICE, TAP, The American Prospect, U.S. Congress
#CurtailFunding #Democrats #HowToStopICE #ICE #ICETactics #ICEThugs #StopFundingICE #TAP #TheAmericanProspect #USCongress -
Republicans Will Never Find a Health Care Replacement – The American Prospect
Credit: J. Scott Applewhite / AP PhotoRepublicans Will Never Find a Health Care Replacement
The GOP is too wedded to free markets and scornful of the welfare state to ever make anything in health care work.
by Ryan Cooper, November 18, 2025
Republicans, for once, are sounding downright squeamish about onrushing massive cuts to Obamacare subsidies, with premiums on the exchanges expected to more than double on average starting next year. GOP House committee chairs are reportedly having some “brainstorming sessions” about what to do, and House Speaker Mike Johnson claims that they will “be rolling out some of those ideas” at some point.
So far, the genius idea in the lead is Trump’s pitch to reroute subsidies from health insurance companies to the American people, so they can buy health care. (House Republicans have already filed a bill that looks like this.) When asked whether people wouldn’t then just use that money to buy health insurance, Trump replied, “Ahh … some may. I mean, they’ll be negotiating prices.” Congratulations, folks, you now get to be your own private dealmaker with the health care system, and with your purchasing power and risk pool of one household, I’m sure you’ll get the best price!
The stupidity is the point. For decades now, the Republican Party has been dedicated to the proposition that rich people are too highly taxed and the working and middle classes get too many benefits from the government. With the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill, they have finally caught the car. Medicaid and Obamacare have been slashed to free up budget headroom for tax cuts heavily slanted to the wealthy. Republicans don’t have a “health care plan” per se because this is their plan: to take your health care funding and give it to Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and the rest of the fascist billionaire class.
American conservatism is a strange political beast. Like all conservatisms across the world, it stands in defense of hierarchy and privilege, but it is welded clumsily to 19th-century orthodox capitalism. By this view, all income should come from working or owning property, and all goods and services should be obtained through the market. It would be unjust for anyone to receive a welfare benefit from the government, because they did not work to earn it. This is a philosophical problem for conservatism, as George Scialabba writes, because capitalism regularly and wildly disrupts the established social order as technologies and businesses evolve. (For the record, this view is also very stupid.)
But it’s a much more practical problem for a Republican trying to write a health care policy. Health insurance is straightforwardly impossible to square with capitalist morality for reasons a child can understand. Most obviously, people routinely get very sick or injured through no fault of their own, and require care that is far more expensive than they can afford out of pocket. Sometimes people have chronic conditions that cost many multiples of what they could ever possibly earn. Therefore, unlike the market for car or home insurance, where each person is charged exactly what they are statistically expected to claim (plus a margin of profit), any functioning health insurance scheme must have systematic transfers from the young and healthy to the elderly and sick.
With a pure market approach, only the very rich will be able to get all the health care they need. Even people making well into six figures will not be able to afford elaborate surgery or cutting-edge therapies out of pocket. The poor—or really anyone living paycheck to paycheck—will not get health care at all. Before Obamacare, that was the reality for many, with the only “insurance” available on the market being de facto worthless if you ever actually needed it.
This is what led early socialists and social democrats to advocate for national health insurance, run by the government. If the market is a fundamentally stupid way to pay for medical treatment, then throw everyone onto the same program, and fund it out of taxes. That way, the risk pool and the funding base will be as large as possible, people will be charged based on their ability to pay, and all citizens will be permanently insured. And historically, the fact that both the elderly and the poor were largely uninsured up through the early 1960s was a major motivation for the creation of Medicare and Medicaid.
Republicans have hated Medicare and Medicaid since the moment they were proposed, because they’re welfare programs. Ronald Reagan got his start in politics with an unhinged mini-documentary claiming Medicare would lead to a totalitarian dictatorship. Historically, Medicare has been too politically secure to touch—at least for now—but Republicans finally took a trillion-dollar bite out of Medicaid in the One Big Beautiful Bill.
Editor’s Note: Featured top image by WP AI.
Continue/Read Original Article Here: Republicans Will Never Find a Health Care Replacement – The American Prospect
#aca #gop #healthCare #healthSubsidies #houseSpeaker #medicaid #medicare #mikeJohnson #noHealthCareReplacement #obamacare #republicans #ryanCooper #theAmericanProspect #welfarePrograms
-
CW: #génocide
Lettre ouverte écrite par l’avocat américain #RalphNader aux principaux organes de presse américain à propos du nombre de morts à #Gaza largement sous évalué :
#NewYorkTimes
Patrick Kingsley
Aaron Boxerman
Isabel Kershner
Adam Rasgon
Natan Odenheimer
Ronen Bergman
International Editor: Philip P. Pan#WashingtonPost
Louisa Loveluck
Shira Rubin
Abbie Cheeseman
Miriam Berger
Gerry Shih
John Hudson
Associate Editor: Karen DeYoung#WallStreetJournal
Foreign News Editor: James Hookway#TheAmericanProspect
Editor, David Dayen#DropsiteNews
Ryan Grim
Jeremy Scahill#TheNewYorker
Editor, David RemnickVous êtes l'un des principaux journalistes et rédacteurs en chef qui ont couvert le meurtre de masse génocidaire et le chaos de #Netanyahu à Gaza. Ce plaidoyer important affirme que vous savez tous mieux que de vous fier uniquement à l'euphémisme étendu des décès et des blessures graves avancés par le #Hamas.
1/7
-
CW: #génocide
Lettre ouverte écrite par l’avocat américain #RalphNader aux principaux organes de presse américain à propos du nombre de morts à #Gaza largement sous évalué :
#NewYorkTimes
Patrick Kingsley
Aaron Boxerman
Isabel Kershner
Adam Rasgon
Natan Odenheimer
Ronen Bergman
International Editor: Philip P. Pan#WashingtonPost
Louisa Loveluck
Shira Rubin
Abbie Cheeseman
Miriam Berger
Gerry Shih
John Hudson
Associate Editor: Karen DeYoung#WallStreetJournal
Foreign News Editor: James Hookway#TheAmericanProspect
Editor, David Dayen#DropsiteNews
Ryan Grim
Jeremy Scahill#TheNewYorker
Editor, David RemnickVous êtes l'un des principaux journalistes et rédacteurs en chef qui ont couvert le meurtre de masse génocidaire et le chaos de #Netanyahu à Gaza. Ce plaidoyer important affirme que vous savez tous mieux que de vous fier uniquement à l'euphémisme étendu des décès et des blessures graves avancés par le #Hamas.
1/7
-
Republicans Are Cutting Medicare. Not Only Medicaid, Medicare. – The American Prospect
Home Politics
Republicans Are Cutting Medicare. Not Only Medicaid, Medicare.
Passage of the Big Beautiful Bill will force mandatory sequestration that will mean half a trillion dollars in Medicare cuts.by David Dayen, July 3, 2025
Francis Chung / POLITICO via AP Images. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaks with reporters ahead of a final vote on a budget reconciliation bill for President Trump’s legislative agenda, July 3, 2025, at the U.S. Capitol.Welcome to “Trump’s Beautiful Disaster,” a pop-up newsletter about the Republican tax and spending bill, one of the most consequential pieces of legislation in a generation. Sign up for the newsletter to get it in your in-box.
It’s always appropriate to bet on the House Freedom Caucus caving to their leader Donald Trump. That’s what happened at 3:20 a.m. this morning, when various assurances, including a potential second reconciliation bill for the 2026 fiscal year, flipped all of them to yes on the Republican mega-bill, which takes food and medicine away from the most vulnerable people in America to give the wealthiest a tax cut.
Those Freedom Caucus members, and all but one member of the Republican caucus, voted early this morning on the rule governing debate on the bill. Before the vote on final passage, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries unleashed an epic speech that has passed the six-hour mark and is still going. It is a kind of talking filibuster, afforded through the tradition of the “magic minute” granted to the opposition leader. But it is just delaying the inevitable: Republicans have the votes in the House to pass the Senate bill unchanged, after several members spent a week railing against the betrayal of changes made that added more debt, weakened the phaseout of clean-energy tax credits, inserted a corrupt deal that will incentivize states to make more payment errors in their SNAP program, and deepened cuts to Medicaid, which will bring the health system to the brink of devastation.
But now Republicans have created another problem. They didn’t just cut Medicaid; they also have forced nearly half a trillion dollars in cuts to Medicare, the health program for the elderly.
Because of a statutory requirement to automatically impose budget cuts when legislation increases the deficit, the Big Beautiful Bill would require automatic sequestration cuts across the board, something that has been confirmed by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) but has been largely absent from the debate over the bill. Medicare is one of the programs that will face the axe, and the damage sums to $490 billion over the next ten years, starting in the next fiscal year that begins in October. While many of the safety-net cuts in the bill are delayed to help Republicans with their re-election campaigns, the Medicare cuts must begin next year.
Read more: Republicans Are Cutting Medicare. Not Only Medicaid, Medicare. – The American ProspectSource Links: Republicans Are Cutting Medicare. Not Only Medicaid, Medicare. – The American Prospect
#2025 #America #DonaldTrump #Health #History #Libraries #LibraryOfCongress #Politics #Resistance #Science #TheAmericanProspect #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates
-
Republicans Are Cutting Medicare. Not Only Medicaid, Medicare. – The American Prospect
Home Politics
Republicans Are Cutting Medicare. Not Only Medicaid, Medicare.
Passage of the Big Beautiful Bill will force mandatory sequestration that will mean half a trillion dollars in Medicare cuts.by David Dayen, July 3, 2025
Francis Chung / POLITICO via AP Images. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaks with reporters ahead of a final vote on a budget reconciliation bill for President Trump’s legislative agenda, July 3, 2025, at the U.S. Capitol.Welcome to “Trump’s Beautiful Disaster,” a pop-up newsletter about the Republican tax and spending bill, one of the most consequential pieces of legislation in a generation. Sign up for the newsletter to get it in your in-box.
It’s always appropriate to bet on the House Freedom Caucus caving to their leader Donald Trump. That’s what happened at 3:20 a.m. this morning, when various assurances, including a potential second reconciliation bill for the 2026 fiscal year, flipped all of them to yes on the Republican mega-bill, which takes food and medicine away from the most vulnerable people in America to give the wealthiest a tax cut.
Those Freedom Caucus members, and all but one member of the Republican caucus, voted early this morning on the rule governing debate on the bill. Before the vote on final passage, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries unleashed an epic speech that has passed the six-hour mark and is still going. It is a kind of talking filibuster, afforded through the tradition of the “magic minute” granted to the opposition leader. But it is just delaying the inevitable: Republicans have the votes in the House to pass the Senate bill unchanged, after several members spent a week railing against the betrayal of changes made that added more debt, weakened the phaseout of clean-energy tax credits, inserted a corrupt deal that will incentivize states to make more payment errors in their SNAP program, and deepened cuts to Medicaid, which will bring the health system to the brink of devastation.
But now Republicans have created another problem. They didn’t just cut Medicaid; they also have forced nearly half a trillion dollars in cuts to Medicare, the health program for the elderly.
Because of a statutory requirement to automatically impose budget cuts when legislation increases the deficit, the Big Beautiful Bill would require automatic sequestration cuts across the board, something that has been confirmed by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) but has been largely absent from the debate over the bill. Medicare is one of the programs that will face the axe, and the damage sums to $490 billion over the next ten years, starting in the next fiscal year that begins in October. While many of the safety-net cuts in the bill are delayed to help Republicans with their re-election campaigns, the Medicare cuts must begin next year.
Read more: Republicans Are Cutting Medicare. Not Only Medicaid, Medicare. – The American ProspectSource Links: Republicans Are Cutting Medicare. Not Only Medicaid, Medicare. – The American Prospect
#2025 #America #DonaldTrump #Health #History #Libraries #LibraryOfCongress #Politics #Resistance #Science #TheAmericanProspect #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates
-
What is really happening in #LosAngeles, by #DavidDayen (@ddayen):
“This took a while to get done, but I've chronicled my day among the protesters in Los Angeles, and the idea that this is anything but a celebration of cultural heritage and a firm, nonviolent demand to protect family, friends and neighbors is totally ridiculous.”
👉 https://prospect.org/justice/cries-defiance-songs-joy-los-angeles-ice-protests-immigration-raids/
Source: https://bsky.app/profile/ddayen.bsky.social/post/3lr7t2xyey22c, https://bsky.app/profile/ddayen.bsky.social
#RealLosAngeles #ImmigrationRights #NoKings #ICE #Protest #TheAmericanProspect
-
What is really happening in #LosAngeles, by #DavidDayen (@ddayen):
“This took a while to get done, but I've chronicled my day among the protesters in Los Angeles, and the idea that this is anything but a celebration of cultural heritage and a firm, nonviolent demand to protect family, friends and neighbors is totally ridiculous.”
👉 https://prospect.org/justice/cries-defiance-songs-joy-los-angeles-ice-protests-immigration-raids/
Source: https://bsky.app/profile/ddayen.bsky.social/post/3lr7t2xyey22c, https://bsky.app/profile/ddayen.bsky.social
#RealLosAngeles #ImmigrationRights #NoKings #ICE #Protest #TheAmericanProspect
-
'Bloodbath': #SocialSecurityAdministration Begins Mass Firings
What is being described as a "total annihilation" of #SSA, say critics, proves that #Trump's promises to protect #SocialSecurity "are a sham."
Jake Johnson, Feb 28, 2025
"The Social Security Administration, now under the control of an official installed by U.S. President Donald Trump, began the process of gutting whole segments of the agency and firing a huge portion of its already diminished workforce, sparking alarm among advocates who say the move will almost certainly result in benefit delays and disruptions.
"#TheAmericanProspect, which first reported earlier this week that Acting SSA Commissioner #LelandDudek was weighing staff cuts of up to 50%, obtained an email sent late Thursday indicating that the department has launched an 'agency-wide organizational restructuring that will include significant workforce reductions.'
"'The email gives employees until March 14 to decide among a number of options,' the Prospect reported. 'They can seek voluntary reassignments, or 'separate from federal service through retirement or resignation.' All employees at least 50 years of age with at least 20 years of service are being offered an 'early out' voluntary early retirement; that's lower than the typical benchmarks for federal employees. Early retirees are typically eligible for an annuity.'
"'In addition, between now and March 14 employees can take voluntary separation incentive payments of up to $25,000, depending on job classification. Employees are also encouraged in the email to resign and take the payout of their annual leave,' the outlet added.
"Trump [a known con-man and liar] has pledged that Social Security 'will not be touched,' but the progressive advocacy group #SocialSecurityWorks argued that the assault on SSA 'has only one goal: The total annihilation of Social Security by firing half of the workforce and closing the field offices.'
"'#WallStreet #billionaires want to destroy Social Security so they can give themselves trillions in tax handouts,' the group wrote on social media."
Read more:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/social-security-administration-layoffs
#USPol #StealingFromThePoor #GivingToTheRich -
'Bloodbath': #SocialSecurityAdministration Begins Mass Firings
What is being described as a "total annihilation" of #SSA, say critics, proves that #Trump's promises to protect #SocialSecurity "are a sham."
Jake Johnson, Feb 28, 2025
"The Social Security Administration, now under the control of an official installed by U.S. President Donald Trump, began the process of gutting whole segments of the agency and firing a huge portion of its already diminished workforce, sparking alarm among advocates who say the move will almost certainly result in benefit delays and disruptions.
"#TheAmericanProspect, which first reported earlier this week that Acting SSA Commissioner #LelandDudek was weighing staff cuts of up to 50%, obtained an email sent late Thursday indicating that the department has launched an 'agency-wide organizational restructuring that will include significant workforce reductions.'
"'The email gives employees until March 14 to decide among a number of options,' the Prospect reported. 'They can seek voluntary reassignments, or 'separate from federal service through retirement or resignation.' All employees at least 50 years of age with at least 20 years of service are being offered an 'early out' voluntary early retirement; that's lower than the typical benchmarks for federal employees. Early retirees are typically eligible for an annuity.'
"'In addition, between now and March 14 employees can take voluntary separation incentive payments of up to $25,000, depending on job classification. Employees are also encouraged in the email to resign and take the payout of their annual leave,' the outlet added.
"Trump [a known con-man and liar] has pledged that Social Security 'will not be touched,' but the progressive advocacy group #SocialSecurityWorks argued that the assault on SSA 'has only one goal: The total annihilation of Social Security by firing half of the workforce and closing the field offices.'
"'#WallStreet #billionaires want to destroy Social Security so they can give themselves trillions in tax handouts,' the group wrote on social media."
Read more:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/social-security-administration-layoffs
#USPol #StealingFromThePoor #GivingToTheRich -
CW: Long thread/15
Writing for #TheAmericanProspect, #PaulStarr rounds up several studies evaluating the "natural experiments" created by enacting very different policies in otherwise similar states:
https://prospect.org/health/2023-12-08-life-death-cost-conservative-power/
The data is in: #ConservativismKills. Living in a red state shortens your life expectancy. The redder the state, the worse it is. The bluer the state, the longer you're likely to live:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1468-0009.12469
15/
-
CW: Long thread/15
Writing for #TheAmericanProspect, #PaulStarr rounds up several studies evaluating the "natural experiments" created by enacting very different policies in otherwise similar states:
https://prospect.org/health/2023-12-08-life-death-cost-conservative-power/
The data is in: #ConservativismKills. Living in a red state shortens your life expectancy. The redder the state, the worse it is. The bluer the state, the longer you're likely to live:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1468-0009.12469
15/
-
CW: Long thread/18
As @ddayen writes for #TheAmericanProspect, Larry Summers' latest pronouncements conspicuously fail to reckon with Larry Summers' greatest detractor: Larry Summers, who spent years calling covid relief "the least responsible economic policy in 40 years":
https://prospect.org/environment/2023-11-20-larry-summers-inflation-prediction-climate-change/
18/
-
CW: Long thread/18
As @ddayen writes for #TheAmericanProspect, Larry Summers' latest pronouncements conspicuously fail to reckon with Larry Summers' greatest detractor: Larry Summers, who spent years calling covid relief "the least responsible economic policy in 40 years":
https://prospect.org/environment/2023-11-20-larry-summers-inflation-prediction-climate-change/
18/
-
CW: Long thread/11
It's...not good. As #MaxMoran writes for #TheAmericanProspect and #TheRevolvingDoorProject, the proposed code amounts to #SecurityTheater, a set of trivially bypassed strictures that would not have prevented any of the scandals to date and will permit far worse once in the years to come:
https://prospect.org/justice/2023-11-17-supreme-court-objectivity-theater/
The security framing is a very useful tool for evaluating the Supremes' proposal.
11/
-
CW: Long thread/11
It's...not good. As #MaxMoran writes for #TheAmericanProspect and #TheRevolvingDoorProject, the proposed code amounts to #SecurityTheater, a set of trivially bypassed strictures that would not have prevented any of the scandals to date and will permit far worse once in the years to come:
https://prospect.org/justice/2023-11-17-supreme-court-objectivity-theater/
The security framing is a very useful tool for evaluating the Supremes' proposal.
11/
-
CW: Long thread/28
It's hard to overstate how unhinged these ads are. Writing for #TheAmericanProspect, #TerriGerstein describes one: "a hammer smashes first an alarm clock, then a light bulb, with shards of glass flying everywhere. An ominous voice predicts imminent doom. Then, for good measure, a second alarm clock is shattered":
https://prospect.org/labor/2023-11-10-business-groups-reflexive-anti-worker-demagogy/
Banning noncompetes is good for workers, but it's also unambiguously good for business and the economy.
28/
-
CW: Long thread/28
It's hard to overstate how unhinged these ads are. Writing for #TheAmericanProspect, #TerriGerstein describes one: "a hammer smashes first an alarm clock, then a light bulb, with shards of glass flying everywhere. An ominous voice predicts imminent doom. Then, for good measure, a second alarm clock is shattered":
https://prospect.org/labor/2023-11-10-business-groups-reflexive-anti-worker-demagogy/
Banning noncompetes is good for workers, but it's also unambiguously good for business and the economy.
28/
-
CW: Long thread/6
As #RobertKuttner writes for #TheAmericanProspect, this latest rhetorical assault on Social Security is timed to coincide with the ascension of the GOP House's new Speaker, #MikeJohnson, who makes no secret of his intention to destroy Social Security:
https://prospect.org/economy/2023-10-31-debunking-latest-attack-social-security/
6/
-
CW: Long thread/6
As #RobertKuttner writes for #TheAmericanProspect, this latest rhetorical assault on Social Security is timed to coincide with the ascension of the GOP House's new Speaker, #MikeJohnson, who makes no secret of his intention to destroy Social Security:
https://prospect.org/economy/2023-10-31-debunking-latest-attack-social-security/
6/
-
CW: Long thread/2
In his review for #TheAmericanProspect, @ddayen summarizes how these six lies "offer a civic-minded, reasonable-sounding justification for positions that in fact are motivated entirely by self-interest":
2/
-
CW: Long thread/2
In his review for #TheAmericanProspect, @ddayen summarizes how these six lies "offer a civic-minded, reasonable-sounding justification for positions that in fact are motivated entirely by self-interest":
2/
-
CW: Long thread/13
This new drug was paid for out of the public purse. The basic R&D - salaries for Hinrichs and his collaborators, as well as funding for their facilities - came out of NIH grants. So did the funding for the initial Phase I trial, and the ongoing large Phase II trial.
As @ddayen writes in #TheAmericanProspect, the proposed patent transfer will make Hinrichs a very wealthy man (Love calls it "generational wealth"):
https://prospect.org/health/2023-10-18-nih-how-to-become-billionaire-program/
13/
-
CW: Long thread/13
This new drug was paid for out of the public purse. The basic R&D - salaries for Hinrichs and his collaborators, as well as funding for their facilities - came out of NIH grants. So did the funding for the initial Phase I trial, and the ongoing large Phase II trial.
As @ddayen writes in #TheAmericanProspect, the proposed patent transfer will make Hinrichs a very wealthy man (Love calls it "generational wealth"):
https://prospect.org/health/2023-10-18-nih-how-to-become-billionaire-program/
13/
-
"Israel Is Making a Terrible Mistake" - @ryanlcooper in #TheAmericanProspect
#Gaza #Israel #Palestine #War #Trouble
https://prospect.org/world/2023-10-16-israel-biden-administration-terrible-mistake/ -
"Israel Is Making a Terrible Mistake" - @ryanlcooper in #TheAmericanProspect
#Gaza #Israel #Palestine #War #Trouble
https://prospect.org/world/2023-10-16-israel-biden-administration-terrible-mistake/ -
CW: Long thread/15
A Butterball exec confirmed that he "can pick the companies for rankings with 100% certainty."
As @ddayen writes in #TheAmericanProspect, these books are incredibly detailed: "bird weights, freezer inventory, and 'head killed per operating hour.'" Within the cozy meat cartels, Agri Stats acts as a clearinghouse that allows every business in the industry to act in concert, running the entire meat-packing sector as a single company:
https://prospect.org/power/2023-10-03-lawsuit-highlights-why-meat-overpriced/
15/
-
CW: Long thread/15
A Butterball exec confirmed that he "can pick the companies for rankings with 100% certainty."
As @ddayen writes in #TheAmericanProspect, these books are incredibly detailed: "bird weights, freezer inventory, and 'head killed per operating hour.'" Within the cozy meat cartels, Agri Stats acts as a clearinghouse that allows every business in the industry to act in concert, running the entire meat-packing sector as a single company:
https://prospect.org/power/2023-10-03-lawsuit-highlights-why-meat-overpriced/
15/
-
CW: Long thread/16
> When the workers, at great personal risk, strike to take back a measure of what is theirs, they are the right side. There is no winning the class war without accepting this premise.
Autoworkers' strikes have been rare for a half-century, but in their heyday, they Got Shit Done. Writing in #TheAmericanProspect, #HaroldMeyerson tells the tale of the 1945/46 #GM strike:
https://prospect.org/labor/2023-09-18-uaw-strikes-built-american-middle-class/
16/
-
CW: Long thread/16
> When the workers, at great personal risk, strike to take back a measure of what is theirs, they are the right side. There is no winning the class war without accepting this premise.
Autoworkers' strikes have been rare for a half-century, but in their heyday, they Got Shit Done. Writing in #TheAmericanProspect, #HaroldMeyerson tells the tale of the 1945/46 #GM strike:
https://prospect.org/labor/2023-09-18-uaw-strikes-built-american-middle-class/
16/
-
CW: Long thread/7
The story is masterfully told in #TheAmericanProspect by veteran labor writer #HaroldMeyerson:
https://prospect.org/labor/2023-09-13-half-million-california-workers-get-raise/
The story starts with Governor Newsom signing a bill to create a new statewide labor-business board to mediate between workers and bosses, with the goal of elevating the working conditions of the state's large, minimum-wage workforce.
7/
-
CW: Long thread/7
The story is masterfully told in #TheAmericanProspect by veteran labor writer #HaroldMeyerson:
https://prospect.org/labor/2023-09-13-half-million-california-workers-get-raise/
The story starts with Governor Newsom signing a bill to create a new statewide labor-business board to mediate between workers and bosses, with the goal of elevating the working conditions of the state's large, minimum-wage workforce.
7/
-
CW: Long thread/12
But as #HaroldMeyerson writes for #TheAmericanProspect, the *Cemex* ruling has its limits. Even if the NLRB forces and employer to recognize a union, they can't force the employer to bargain in good faith for a union contract. The #NationalLaborRelationsAct prohibits the Board from imposing a contract.
That's created a loophole that corrupt bosses have driven entire *fleets* of trucks through.
12/
-
CW: Long thread/12
But as #HaroldMeyerson writes for #TheAmericanProspect, the *Cemex* ruling has its limits. Even if the NLRB forces and employer to recognize a union, they can't force the employer to bargain in good faith for a union contract. The #NationalLaborRelationsAct prohibits the Board from imposing a contract.
That's created a loophole that corrupt bosses have driven entire *fleets* of trucks through.
12/
-
CW: Long thread/17
Writing in *#TheAmericanProspect*, #LukeGoldstein unpacks an #astroturf campaign to save the endangered swipe fee from woke competition advocates:
https://prospect.org/power/2023-08-04-wall-street-culture-war-swipe-fee-reform/
Now, this campaign isn't particularly sophisticated. It goes like this: #Target is a big business that runs a lot of transactions through Visa/Mastercard, so it stands to benefit from competition in payment routing.
17/
-
CW: Long thread/17
Writing in *#TheAmericanProspect*, #LukeGoldstein unpacks an #astroturf campaign to save the endangered swipe fee from woke competition advocates:
https://prospect.org/power/2023-08-04-wall-street-culture-war-swipe-fee-reform/
Now, this campaign isn't particularly sophisticated. It goes like this: #Target is a big business that runs a lot of transactions through Visa/Mastercard, so it stands to benefit from competition in payment routing.
17/
-
CW: Long thread/13
They probably shouldn't have. In this interview with *#TheAmericanProspect*'s #PeterHong, the brilliant documentary director #AmyZiering breaks down how #Netflix and the other streamers have rugged documentarians in a classic #enshittification ploy that lured in filmmakers, extracted everything they had, and then discarded the husks:
https://prospect.org/culture/2023-06-21-drowned-in-the-stream/
13/
-
CW: Long thread/13
They probably shouldn't have. In this interview with *#TheAmericanProspect*'s #PeterHong, the brilliant documentary director #AmyZiering breaks down how #Netflix and the other streamers have rugged documentarians in a classic #enshittification ploy that lured in filmmakers, extracted everything they had, and then discarded the husks:
https://prospect.org/culture/2023-06-21-drowned-in-the-stream/
13/
-
CW: Long thread/18
These people who were conspicuously silent for years as the FTC's revolving door admitted the a bestiary of swamp-creatures so conflicted it's a wonder they managed to dress themselves in the morning.
Writing in *#TheAmericanProspect*, @ddayen runs the numbers:
> Since the late 1990s, 31 out of 41 top FTC officials worked directly for a company that has business before the agency, with 26 of them related to the technology industry.
https://prospect.org/economy/2023-06-23-attacks-lina-khans-ethics-reveal-projection/
18/
-
CW: Long thread/18
These people who were conspicuously silent for years as the FTC's revolving door admitted the a bestiary of swamp-creatures so conflicted it's a wonder they managed to dress themselves in the morning.
Writing in *#TheAmericanProspect*, @ddayen runs the numbers:
> Since the late 1990s, 31 out of 41 top FTC officials worked directly for a company that has business before the agency, with 26 of them related to the technology industry.
https://prospect.org/economy/2023-06-23-attacks-lina-khans-ethics-reveal-projection/
18/
-
CW: Long thread/20
In support of this proposition, deliverism's critics point to Obamacare, lauding it as a policy that made Americans better off, but still failed to win enough support for the Dems to defeat Trump at the end of Obama's second term.
In their rebuttal in *#TheAmericanProspect*, @ddayen and #MattStoller point out that for most Americans, Obamacare *didn't* produce any improvement to their health care.
20/
-
CW: Long thread/20
In support of this proposition, deliverism's critics point to Obamacare, lauding it as a policy that made Americans better off, but still failed to win enough support for the Dems to defeat Trump at the end of Obama's second term.
In their rebuttal in *#TheAmericanProspect*, @ddayen and #MattStoller point out that for most Americans, Obamacare *didn't* produce any improvement to their health care.
20/
-
CW: Long thread/9
As #RyanCooper writes for *#TheAmericanProspect*, Merck's argument is that the "fair market" value of its drugs can only be discovered if its single largest customer - Medicare - simply pays whatever Merck demands of it:
https://prospect.org/health/2023-06-08-merck-negotiating-drug-prices-unconstitutional/
9/
-
CW: Long thread/9
As #RyanCooper writes for *#TheAmericanProspect*, Merck's argument is that the "fair market" value of its drugs can only be discovered if its single largest customer - Medicare - simply pays whatever Merck demands of it:
https://prospect.org/health/2023-06-08-merck-negotiating-drug-prices-unconstitutional/
9/
-
CW: Long thread/10
But writing for #TheAmericanProspect, #RyanCooper argues that this could still be sound tactics:
https://prospect.org/economy/2023-05-25-democrats-fear-supreme-court/
If Biden does something about the debt default, and the Supremes block it, then the default is *their* fault. What's more, it's a mess they absolutely do *not* want to get into, like deciding which of the US's creditors will and won't get paid when they sue over the default.
10/
-
CW: Long thread/10
But writing for #TheAmericanProspect, #RyanCooper argues that this could still be sound tactics:
https://prospect.org/economy/2023-05-25-democrats-fear-supreme-court/
If Biden does something about the debt default, and the Supremes block it, then the default is *their* fault. What's more, it's a mess they absolutely do *not* want to get into, like deciding which of the US's creditors will and won't get paid when they sue over the default.
10/
-
CW: Long thread/20
But the Child Tax Credit has been systematically sabotaged, by Intuit lobbyists, who successfully added layer after layer of red tape - needless complexity that makes it nearly impossible to claim the credit without expert help - from the likes of Intuit:
https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/29/three-times-is-enemy-action/#ctc
It worked. As #RyanCooper writes in *#TheAmericanProspect*: "between 13 and 22 percent of EITC benefits are gulped down by tax prep companies":
https://prospect.org/economy/2023-05-17-irs-takes-welcome-step-20th-century/
20/
-
CW: Long thread/20
But the Child Tax Credit has been systematically sabotaged, by Intuit lobbyists, who successfully added layer after layer of red tape - needless complexity that makes it nearly impossible to claim the credit without expert help - from the likes of Intuit:
https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/29/three-times-is-enemy-action/#ctc
It worked. As #RyanCooper writes in *#TheAmericanProspect*: "between 13 and 22 percent of EITC benefits are gulped down by tax prep companies":
https://prospect.org/economy/2023-05-17-irs-takes-welcome-step-20th-century/
20/
-
CW: Long thread/16
It's pure #economism: "If economists wished to study the horse, they wouldn’t go and look at horses. They’d sit in their studies and say to themselves, ‘What would I do if I were a horse?’"
https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/27/economism/#what-would-i-do-if-i-were-a-horse
But, as Mark Paul writes for *#TheAmericanProspect*, rent control *works*:
https://prospect.org/infrastructure/housing/2023-05-16-economists-hate-rent-control/
Rent control doesn't constrain housing supply:
https://dornsife.usc.edu/pere/rent-matters
At least some of the time, rent control *expands* housing supply:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-9906.2007.00334.x
16/
-
CW: Long thread/16
It's pure #economism: "If economists wished to study the horse, they wouldn’t go and look at horses. They’d sit in their studies and say to themselves, ‘What would I do if I were a horse?’"
https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/27/economism/#what-would-i-do-if-i-were-a-horse
But, as Mark Paul writes for *#TheAmericanProspect*, rent control *works*:
https://prospect.org/infrastructure/housing/2023-05-16-economists-hate-rent-control/
Rent control doesn't constrain housing supply:
https://dornsife.usc.edu/pere/rent-matters
At least some of the time, rent control *expands* housing supply:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-9906.2007.00334.x
16/
-
CW: Long thread/26
Writing in *#TheAmericanProspect*, #KalenaThomhave does an *excellent* job on the technical ins-and-outs of calling on PUCs to regulate prison-tech, both in California and in other states where PUCs haven't yet been neutered or eliminated by deregulation-crazed Republicans:
https://prospect.org/justice/2023-05-08-california-prison-phone-calls-free/
26/
