Devin DeFrancesco

@kurtcob3ain @TheTrueXProphet @DGisSERIOUS @EWErickson Have you actually looked into what’s happening in Sudan? Estimates vary wildly for both but it is possible that more civilians died in El Fasher alone than the entire Gaza war. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Fasher… Israel’s actions can be horrific without claiming nothing else compares.

@Devin_DeFran @TheTrueXProphet @DGisSERIOUS @EWErickson The wars you mentioned are bad too but nothing compares to the asymmetry, carnage and genocide we all saw in Gaza done by the Israeli Attack Forces

Iran had a literal countdown clock built in the middle of Tehran for Israel’s destruction in 2017 you absolute moron

@oppositeistrue @TheTrueXProphet @DGisSERIOUS @EWErickson Have you actually looked into what’s happening in Sudan? Estimates vary wildly for both but it is possible that more civilians died in El Fasher alone than the entire Gaza war. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Fasher… Israel’s actions can be horrific without claiming nothing else compares.

@Devin_DeFran @TheTrueXProphet @DGisSERIOUS @EWErickson this is such a moronic comparison. it’s like comparing it to all deaths in the world. the horror is the amount of civilian deaths (mostly women and children) and civic destruction over such a small area. the entire area is leveled.

@TheTrueXProphet @DGisSERIOUS @EWErickson How have you never seen anything like this? Israel’s behavior recently is horrific but it’s not a rare event. if you compare Gaza to other currently ongoing conflicts, far more people have died in the war between Ukraine and Russia, the Yemen civil war and the Sudan civil war.

@DGisSERIOUS @EWErickson Both are not without fault. But I’ve never seen anything like the destruction and genocide in Gaza.

@Hoodie_Milly @SpliffyBendrix @usurpthachef Why do you think we all eat pepperoni? The left of center coalition contains people who are threatening to leave if we don’t pick a leftist but it also contains people who are threatening to leave if we do. You lose voters if you go too far left or too far right.

The point still remains that we will all eat pepperoni. It doesnt matter that only 1/4th of the party wants pepperoni. Because the rest of the party is fine with pepperoni as long as its not anchovies (maga fascism). So if 4 more people show up. And they all want anchovies. And you dont. The simplest way to make it an even 4v4 is to pick the pepperoni otherwise you are down a Man 3 to 4 even tho he only makes up 25% of the voters, and the other 75% is a majority. The majority claims to not care as long as it isnt anchovies. So it seems pretty stupid for you to make sausage your go to candidate over pepperoni

“We’re doing the same shit we did with Biden.” I bet Alex Pretti and Renee Good are smiling down on you and Hasan from heaven knowing that y’all prioritized virtue signaling online about issues none of you actually care about over doing all you could to keep Trump out of office!

@Hoodie_Milly @SpliffyBendrix @usurpthachef I voted for Bernie over Biden in the Dem primary. I’m one of the friends saying please any left of center pizza instead of fascist pizza.

@Devin_DeFran @SpliffyBendrix @usurpthachef Ah so its ok for you to withhold your vote in the general election if you dont get the candidate you want but if we do it we are the bad guys Got it

@Hoodie_Milly @SpliffyBendrix @usurpthachef The problem is that we have 5 people here. 1 saying leftist pizza only. 2 saying no leftist pizza. Very few voters thought Kamala was too conservative. There are more leftists in the D primary than in the general election. If you lose the primary, you’re losing general harder.

Heres a fun hypothetical. 4 friends are hanging out and decide to order pizza. 3 of those people say, "I dont care what toppings we put on. Pizza no matter who". The 4th guy says "i actually do care. If its not pepperoni i wont eat it" Which option is most likely to feed all 4 people. A pepperoni pizza or a sausage/mushroom? Take your time I know math is probably hard for you

@SammyPickles96 @dilanesper This poll was made by IMEU which is a pro Palestinian advocacy group. Look at how they worded the poll question: “Ending Israel’s violence in Gaza” vs “The economy” This is not neutral polling trying to find out what people cared about. This was fishing for a specific result.

@dilanesper We will never know if it was decisive nationally but it was an enormous issue. I believe it was decisive in Michigan. If the people who voted for Biden in 2020 vote for Kamala would in 2024 she wins. Gaza was the #1 issue for that group of people. imeupolicyproject.org/postelection-p…

The Gaza war was definitely unpopular. But there's zero evidence that it cost Harris the election. There was a prebaked narrative that was to be rolled out about Muslim voters if Michigan had been the decisive state. But she lost ALL the swing states.

@elia2498 @RossKneeDeep How was Obama racially divisive?

@RossKneeDeep First off, thank you for your service/career with the DFD. Unfortunately, President Obama was the most racially divisive President this country has ever seen. I’m sure it wasn’t intentional (I’m assuming) but he certainly didn’t do anything t help it.

I have to admit my huge miscalculation on race relations. In 2009 when Obama became the president, I thought that America was on road to racial unity. Boy, was I wrong. I was a firefighter in Detroit for 34 years. To my surprise (naivety), I started hearing white firefighters around me saying disparaging things about Obama. They somehow seemed to hate him. Many called Obama the most racially dividing president we've ever had. These were men I'd risked my life with for 20 or 30 years, coming out as racists. That was the start of our current racial divide, not because Obama separated the races. But, because his skin color separated the races. Then came Trump, a known racist. He gave racists the ability to stand up and proudly be racist. I saw white firefighters around me embrace Trump and try to tell me how he's done more for Black Americans than any other president. Today, American racists are as proud as they can possibly be as their president destroys any and everything black. Including his new Obama ape video. Trump is currently seeking paths to remain in power forever and he must be stopped. Well, I was definitely wrong about racial unity and today we are on a road to increasing white power (Making America Great Again). The one good thing that Trump has done is expose the racists we really didn't know about. I think it's time for Democrats to stop being so docile and to go on the offense. One man should not be allowed to destroy a nation.

@joewrote @besttrousers A huge part of the book is regulations that the government puts on itself and hampers its own goals. Big business is not funding high speed rail. California’s government needs to be unleashed so it can actually accomplish things like HSR. You would know this if you read the book.

@besttrousers That "name the enemy" of corporations and corporate power is one of the strongest. That's contradictory to Thompson and Klein's message that big business is useful; it just needs to be unleashed.

Tough day for Abundance

@arenty_ @abitoffaithpls @AliceClimbers 1913 was mostly a wash for rural urban balance as they capped the House that year at 435. If the ratio of House members per person had stayed similar (200k member vs 750k per member today), Republicans would almost never win the presidency as the popular vote would matter more.

@Devin_DeFran @abitoffaithpls @AliceClimbers *massive sigh* 1. Read the federalist papers 2. Yes, something has been done to address the imbalance. State legislators use to pick the senators (changed in 1913). If we still did that today it would be 61R - 39D

This country is beyond cooked. You are arguing 14 million people need less representation than 500,000 people because wyoming looks bigger on a map. You are losing to a trick question you'd give to a 6 year old and if they got it wrong they'd end up in the slow reading group.

@arenty_ @abitoffaithpls @AliceClimbers The original system was set up in a way where rural voters get massive advantages over urban voters. This wasn’t really an issue when 5% of the population was urban, but currently 80% of the population is urban and nothing has been done to address the imbalance as things changed.

@abitoffaithpls @AliceClimbers Umm yeah our country be set up exactly how the founders intended, giving states 2 senators while the house is based on the number of people. This is 3rd grade level stuff. Add another flag to your name and read a book.

@redhookmarket1 @hecubian_devil @ZaidJilani Wasn’t aware of the court expansion in Utah. Substantially changes my view of Cox tbh, but talking with conservatives is important. It was awful PR that much of the left said who cares that he’s dead after the Kirk shooting. Being personally hostile to opps is rarely good PR.

@Devin_DeFran @hecubian_devil @ZaidJilani Kirk was an infamously bad-faith right-wing propogandist. Cox is trying to stack Utahs Supreme Court w even more conservatives. The Right has shown over and over that they aren’t interested in compromise. Why is Klein pretending they might be? THATs counterproductive.

I like Ezra and have read him for 15 years, I think his blind spot is just excessive faith in elites which lead him to say things like Hillary is good at politics, Epsteins friends were just smol beans etc

@redhookmarket1 @hecubian_devil @ZaidJilani Cox is genuinely a pretty moderate Republican compared to most? And Kirk was literally just assassinated at the time? Ezra’s evil plan to help govt projects for public transit and building more housing. Your criticisms seem pretty counterproductive to achieving progressive goals.

@hecubian_devil @ZaidJilani His activities the past few months indicate that he is not well meaning. Lauding Kirk and Spencer Cox, his ‘prediction’ that Epstein’s crimes were unrelated to his wealthy network, his central project to rebrand neoliberalism… he is not a good guy.

@GumSlinger @mattyglesias @Rybread_26 Again, I am not aware of any legal standard demanding unions must only care about short term interests and must ignore long term interests of their workers or are legally obligated to ignore reputational damage as a legitimate part of the interests of the represented workers.

@Devin_DeFran @mattyglesias @Rybread_26 (You don't get to make up your own legal standards out of thin air.)

Matt what do you think the job of the teachers union is in this moment

@GumSlinger @mattyglesias @Rybread_26 Management of reputation is in the teacher’s interest. Repeatedly making demands that make teachers look bad is detrimental to the long term interests of teachers.

@Devin_DeFran @mattyglesias @Rybread_26 Non-sequitur.

@GumSlinger @mattyglesias @Rybread_26 Show me where the law demands unions are obligated to make demands that have negative long term consequences for the workers they represent.

@Devin_DeFran @mattyglesias @Rybread_26 Take it up with labor law, my dude.

@GumSlinger @mattyglesias @Rybread_26 Why is it in the teacher’s interest to help solidify a bad reputation that teachers want schools closed at any possible opportunity? Maintaining the reputation of teachers is in the union’s interest. Making teachers look bad and purely self interested is a bad move by the union.

@mattyglesias @Rybread_26 Teacher unions, by definition, do not and cannot take into account the vital role that public schools play in our communities. Their focus is solely on the benefit of the teachers. Not students, not communities.

@TheB_sKnees @NateSilver538 They sent 2000-3000 ICE agents to Minneapolis. The reason this is happening there is because of the insane deployment there that is not happening anywhere else. Has nothing to do with sanctuary cities and everything to do with the Trump admin deciding to swarm a <500k pop city.

Nope, the issue is the state of Minnesota and the city of Minneapolis. Sanctuary cities who do not work with federal agents and therefore require them to go into the cities knocking on doors increases the risk for everyone involved. On top of it when they call people to come out and protest it even makes it more dangerous. This craziness isn’t happening anywhere else. I wonder why that is because ice is in all states. The democrat leaders of the state want this to happen. They want the unrest. They want to see the violence.

Wrote about Minneapolis. Obviously, I have a strong visceral reaction to this. But trying to stick to public opinion in this newsletter. It’s clear that many Americans feel the same way.

@JohnW41755147 @asymmetricinfo Hmm have you considered that if a video looks barbaric and inhuman to the public that the most likely situation is that ICE’s behavior is just actually barbaric and inhuman?

@asymmetricinfo I think the obviously likely reason ICE and CBP don't wear camera is because Democratic members of congress will push the recorded video out to the public in an attempt to characterize lawful enforcement activities as barbaric and inhuman.

Policing legends Bill Bratton and Ken Corey made this point in my most recent podcast: cameras are one of the best things that ever happened to policing. Not only do they vindicate cops from accusations by people who are lying or confused, they enable better training. youtube.com/watch?v=B1FFDO…

@Arrekisu @CameronCorduroy I’m asking for an attempt at truth seeking. No one would suddenly blame a horse going missing on the nice family that recently moved here from France. There’s just no reason to jump to the claim that the Haitians are stealing pets because a normal number of pets went missing.

@Devin_DeFran @CameronCorduroy So again youre asking for proof.

no, residents were interviewed who said they heard from a friend who saw a facebook post about pets going missing